Readers with embarrassingly rambunctious relatives of their own will moo-roar in sympathy.
A chaperone who turns into a dinosaur when she sneezes really complicates a class trip for two young museum visitors.
The unnamed narrator may hope for “no funny business” from her grandma—but hardly have they arrived than a “silver sparkle of museum dust” sets off an extended sneezing fit that sends the narrator and companion Moonie haring off after a small speedster they identify as an eoraptor. Telling the demure dino that she can’t run in the museum only makes her sneeze again, turning her into a car-sized zuniceratops. Then an ankylosaurus, and on through 11 more transformations…including a pterodactyl that guide-toting Moonie points out isn’t actually a true dinosaur. One final blast brings “regular Grandma” back at last, just in time to board the school bus. O’Toole fills in the backgrounds sparsely, and readers may find themselves wondering exactly what kind of museum this is. Still, neither Grandma nor any of the fairly diverse lot of other visitors and staff look even slightly bothered by all the hubbub, which adds an extra layer of jollity to the views of outsized dinosaurs invading galleries, trying to cut the line at the cafeteria, or bellowing a “moo-roar” (“Where’s your indoor voice? You can’t yell in a museum!”) in the main hall. A dino-key at the end supplies names and a few facts for all 14 iterations of Grandma. Grandma and the narrator present White, and Moonie has brown skin and dark hair.
Readers with embarrassingly rambunctious relatives of their own will moo-roar in sympathy. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-988761-46-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Common Deer Press
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
First of a tasty if not immediately nourishing new series.
When Dr. Bunsen, Gabe, Laura, and Cesar's mad-scientist neighbor, tries out his growth machine on Gabe's plastic animal toys, there's an unexpected result—they come to life.
Second-grade whiz kids Gabriel Martinez, Laura Reyes, and Cesar Moreno meet their strange neighbor while fundraising for a science-club field trip. Known to their classmates as “the Data Set,” they each have individual passions: Gabe loves animals; Laura loves to tinker and invent; Cesar loves to read and eat. There’s room for all these activities in their well-equipped treehouse. Together, their fantastic adventures will be the stuff of four titles scheduled for 2016 and aimed directly at first- and second-graders already devouring books. This episode introduces the characters, sets up the problem (the cute but rapidly growing baby animals), and finds a solution (sneak them into the zoo) in 126 fast-paced pages written with plenty of dialogue and copiously illustrated with appealing drawings. With these Latino protagonists—Cesar has dark skin and curly hair, while Laura and Gabe have lighter skin and straight hair—and a STEM-infused plot, this would seem to have been made to order for today’s elementary school students. While the emphasis is far more on plot than STEM, the kid-friendly fantasy should captivate readers, who will certainly want to gobble up the next installment. (Tantalizingly, the opening pages are included.)
First of a tasty if not immediately nourishing new series. (Adventure. 5-8)Pub Date: April 5, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4814-5729-3
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
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
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