ALA Booklist

Set on a round planet in a land of curves and curls, this is a sweet, spirited story, told in verse, about a typical day in the life of Rolie Polie Olie, his mom and pop, his sister, Zowie, and his doggy, Spot. Together they eat breakfast (a bowl of Rolie O's apiece), do the Rolie Polie Rumba Dance (in their underpants), and have fun doing chores and playing. Rolie Polies are spherical creatures with heads and bodies like billiard balls. Their arms and legs resemble metal coils, and atop their heads, they have a metal antenna they use to recharge themselves. Unfortunately, Olie is so wired by bedtime that he gets into a lot of trouble. All ends well, however, with everyone safe and snug and sleepy. Based on Joyce's animated TV series, which airs on the Disney channel (is that why Olie wears red shorts with Mickey Mouse buttons?), the book features candy-colored, computer-enhanced pictures with an intriguing three-dimensional quality. A slight but engagingly whimsical effort. Think Toy Story (the movie) for tots. (Reviewed November 1, 1999)

Horn Book

These bilingual editions are marred by awkward Spanish texts--in addition to the unimaginative English texts. One or two basic facts per page (in both Spanish and English) face a photo of the particular desert animal, sometimes with labels stating the obvious. Unfamiliar words are defined in an anemic glossary ("desert--a very dry area"). Concurrently published in English. Reading list. Ind.

Kirkus Reviews

PLB 0-06-027164-7 Joyce (The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, 1996, etc.) plays with circles, curls, and curves the way a writer plays with language, creating a visually dazzling story about the everyday capers of a family of round Rolie Polies. Rolie Polie Olie is a toy of a boy, an electro-comic character from a futuristic, alien planet "way up high in the Rolie Polie sky." In the morning he rolls out of bed, brushes his teeth, and recharges his head. At breakfast he dances the Rolie Polie Rumba dance in underpants, then rides aboard the hip-hop mop to wash his teapot house from tip to top. With a rhyme that would be strained in less sure hands, Joyce takes Olie through a hip-hip-hooray day of play and into bedtime, landing Olie in "a bunch of trouble" until he is "Rolie Polie sad" and misses the nightly kiss on his Rolie Polie head. Computer-generated, digitized backgrounds lend an SF atmosphere to every scene, while the flamboyant colors work in concert to create—appropriately, given the character's origins—an effect of suspended animation. An eccentric blend of the cinematic and familial that is coming to be known as vintage Joyce. (Picture book. 2-7)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Joyce diverges from the hyperbolic, pleasurably bizarre imagery he created for The Leaf Men and Dinosaur Bob in this digitally enhanced but uneventful picture book. Rolie Polie Olie is a robotic child living in a """"land of curves and curls,"""" where most objects are rounded and smooth (although the rooms of Olie's teapot-shaped house have corners). Olie himself is comprised of a round yellow head with the circular black eyes of a smiley face. On his spherical torso, he wears red shorts whose dual buttons recall Mickey Mouse's signature pants, and he stands on pliable metallic limbs that resemble pay-phone cords. In this day-in-the-life story, """"Rolie Polie Olie/ rolled out of bed./ Brushed his teeth./ Recharged his head."""" After a breakfast of """"Rolie O's,"""" Olie and his parents, sister and dog perform a morning ritual: """"The Rolie Polie Rumba Dance/ was always done in underpants!"""" Olie then helps the family with chores, plays ball (of course), gets in a tiff with his sister, apologizes and goes to bed forgiven. Joyce makes use of round """"O""""s in his rhymes and liberally applies """"Rolie"""" as an adjective (""""Yes, okey dokey is the day/ when all you Rolie did was play""""). Thanks to computer manipulation, his plasticine paintings offer crisp edges, flawless high-tech color and a seeming three-dimensionality. Olie's shiny surface doesn't make up for his lack of a personality, but the character practically steps out of the frames, advertising his potential as a toy or animated image. Ages 2-8. (Oct.)