A lighthearted if unremarkable (and perhaps a bit outdated?) addition to the epistolary genre.
A T. Rex and a 6-year-old fan with questions strike up a lively correspondence.
At the suggestion of a curator, young Max writes a fan letter to his favorite dino at the museum and gets a fierce reply: “I do NOT write nice letters to small children. I eat them.” Not daunted, Max continues to send chatty queries—some of which, along with T. Rex’s first letter, are glued-in sheets or cards. T. Rex loosens up in later exchanges, receives Max’s gifts of a lost tooth and a “Sausagesaurus” (a rubber duck, as it turns out) with thanks, and, in a final email message, promises not to eat him when he visits again. Sticking to more traditional media, Max at the end crafts a home-made greeting card to proclaim that the two will be “Dinopals forever!” Though T. Rex’s stationery comes from a fictitious museum in South Carolina, the post boxes in the illustrations and the overall tone of the language reflect this import’s British origins. Like Max and his interracial parents (dark-skinned dad, light-skinned mum), the dinosaurs exhibited in the museum are mostly smiling figures in O’Byrne’s brightly colored cartoons.
A lighthearted if unremarkable (and perhaps a bit outdated?) addition to the epistolary genre. (Novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: July 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7641-6898-7
Page Count: 28
Publisher: Barron's
Review Posted Online: Aug. 6, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
Tried and true, both in content and formula.
Parting—of the temporary rather than permanent kind—is the latest topic to be dino-sorted in this venerable series’ 14th outing.
Nobody dies and the series is showing no signs of flagging, so reading anything ominous into the title is overthinking it. Instead, Teague and Yolen once again treat readers to a succession of outsized, gaily patterned dinosaurs throwing tantrums or acting out, this time as dad packs up for a business trip or even just sets off to work, grandparents pause at the door for goodbyes, mom drops her offspring off at school on a first day, parents take a date night, or a moving van pulls up to the house. Per series formula, the tone switches partway through when bad behavior gives way to (suggested) better: “They tell all the grown-ups / just how they are feeling. / It helps right away / for fast dinosaur healing.” Hugs, kisses, and a paper heart might also be more constructive responses than weeping, clinging, and making mayhem. Dinosaurian pronouns mostly alternate between he and she until switching to the generic their in the last part. In the art, the human cast mixes figures with different racial presentations and the date-night parents are an interracial couple, but there is no evident sign of same-gender or other nonnormative domestic situations.
Tried and true, both in content and formula. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-36335-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
Young fans of all things big and noisy will make trax for this dynamic dino-diversion.
The prehistoric metal monsters dug up and introduced in Dinotrux! (2009) break out—twice!—in this smashing (crashing, roaring, grinding) sequel.
Exploding through the dino-museum’s wall in the wake of a particularly stressful Kindergarten Day, enraged Tyrannosaurus Trux rolls off to climb a skyscraper. Meanwhile, hungry Garbageadon chows down on local traffic, a pair of Velocitractors plow up Main Street and Cementosaurus dumps a heaping “present” in the town square. Enough! declares the mayor, firmly dispatching the miscreant mega vehicles to school to learn better behavior. Further chaos threatens when they burst out again, though, taking along the children who have introduced them to the wonders of (truck) books and other reading. Towering massively atop heavy-duty tires, with wide, headlight eyes and toothy maws agape, Gall’s brawny beasts make modern construction vehicles look like jumped-up SmartCars. But even the most brutish dinotrux can find a place in today’s world, as the final playground scene suggests.
Young fans of all things big and noisy will make trax for this dynamic dino-diversion. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-316-13288-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2012
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