Molly, Olive, and Dexter: The Guessing Game

Olive the owl is especially good at playing Guess What?, frustrating her friends in this tenderly illustrated story about an endearing trio.

Outside their home in the oak tree at the edge of the meadow, three animal friends are eager to play Olive’s favorite guessing game. “Guess what I’m thinking about,” says Dexter the fox, looking straight at his answer, giving it away. Next is Molly the hare, whose answer is easily guessed because she has pieces of it sticking out of her mouth. But when Olive the owl takes her turn, her friends are soon stumped and grumbly, ready to give up. What could be two things Olive is thinking about at the same time—things that are nearby and lovely, even lovelier than flowers? With beautifully spare, expressive watercolor illustrations, quiet humor, and a gentle text, Kate Greenaway Medalist Catherine Rayner portrays familiar toddler emotions with reassurance and charm, capturing a moment among three friends that young children will feel instantly at home with.Utterly comfortable in its own coziness, Rayner’s extraordinary, watercolorlike mixed-media art has a loose, sketchy quality that adds to its easygoing charm. . . set against a backdrop of a summer’s day so beautiful that children will yearn to return again and again. It takes no guesswork to understand just how endearing this friendship truly is.
—Kirkus Reviews

Rayner’s soft mixed-media illustrations on cream-colored pages match the text’s gentle tone. . . . With its peaceful meadow setting and the friends’ warm rapport, this good-natured picture book offers a pleasing storytime diversion.
—The Horn BookCatherine Rayner is the creator of Molly, Olive, and Dexter Play Hide-and-Seek, the first book about this trio of animal friends. She is also the author-illustrator of Harris Finds His Feet, winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal, as well as My Pet Goldfish and other acclaimed picture books. She exhibits her artwork in galleries all over the world and illustrates her own line of greeting cards. Catherine Rayner lives in Scotland.