Bland sauce: Others have dished up better.
Kids are shocked by their new librarian’s eating habits.
“The day Ms. Bronte came to school, / story time was extra cool,” warbles the collective narrator—except for one “small problem, / couldn’t beat it. / Once she read a book… // SHE’D EAT IT!” Big, irregular die-cut chomps taken out of the cover and endpapers lead to cartoon illustrations featuring a frumpy, bespectacled long-necked dinosaur smilingly wolfing down stacks of generic library volumes. Ms. Bronte then goes on to the school’s other stashes of books as students and grown-ups (diverse in skin color and facial features but all human) look on in wide-eyed dismay. Is it a love of books? Not at all, as Ms. Bronte explains as she packs up to leave: “It’s not that I find books so yummy, / but nothing else here fills my tummy.” Fortunately, she suddenly realizes that the school’s overgrown soccer field, there all along but somehow going unnoticed, is in serious need of weeding…just the ticket for a hungry herbivore. This contrived twist combines with a vague moral about how books are for reading, not eating, to give Tarpley’s addition to the annals of bibliophagy a tentative air—particularly next to more robustly comedic variations on the theme, like Franziska Biermann’s The Fox Who Ate Books, translated by Shelley Tanaka (2016), or Emma Yarlett’s Nibbles stories.
Bland sauce: Others have dished up better. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: June 23, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5247-7168-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 8, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.
With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?
Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An appealing approach, as ever filled with humor and common sense.
In the latest addition to the long-running, bestselling series, Yolen and Teague’s rascally dinosaurs learn to read and enjoy books despite their sometimes-inappropriate antics.
Yolen’s signature, inquiry-based rhyming text begins with the titular query, “How does a dinosaur / learn how to read?” In response, a series of rhetorical questions are posed, each indicating an unsuitable behavior or reaction when a new reader might be struggling, frustrated, and discouraged. “Does he use his new book / as a shovel or bat? // Play fetch with the dog? / Throw books at the cat?” Silly (“jump on the book”), sometimes rage-filled (“have a big hissy / when reading skills fail”) conduct eventually leads to the inevitable series of contradictions. “No—she’s kind to each book, / to the cover and pages. / She reads very carefully. / Never has rages.” Respectful care for books is emphasized so that reading a good story can be enjoyed again and again with calm, determined patience. Humorously exaggerated depictions of nine different angry, irritated, ill-tempered (and enormous) dinosaurs quickly revert to happy, willing, and satisfied expressions (highlighted in the endpapers) as new readers succeed to end the day peacefully, each falling asleep with a book in bed. A practical addendum offers sensible strategies for caregivers to coach their new readers following parental read-alouds, including learning letter sounds, sounding out words, using picture cues, repetition, and rhyming words.
An appealing approach, as ever filled with humor and common sense. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: June 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-338-23301-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
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