Readers won’t want to wait to find out where the Dinotrux will go next.
The third in Gall’s crashing, smashing series takes the hot and grumpy Dinotrux on a vacation to the beach. What mayhem will ensue?
Anyone who has experienced the cooling relief of water in the hot summer will know exactly how these trucks feel cannonballing into the water, sinking beneath the waves, and squirting water out in a stream—the delight is plain in their headlights and grilles. And that’s not all that will be familiar: among other things, Digasaurus buries himself in the sand, Dumploducus unfortunately finds a nest of crabs, the Deliveradons have forgotten their sunscreen, and incontinent Cementosaurus gets bombed by sea gulls. The second half is taken up with the Dinotrux’s attempt at building a sand castle, a dismal failure until Tyrannosaurus Trux takes charge and gets everyone cooperating, each Dinotruck doing the job for which it was made (born?). In the process, the group saves tiny Scoopasaurus from a menacing threat and gives a cave couple some new digs. Gall’s penciled, digitally colored illustrations are sure to draw readers in, the Dinotrucks a masterful combination of childish enthusiasm and rough, tough machines. Pair this with Molly Idle’s Sea Rex for a prehistoric storytime sure to have listeners in stitches and looking for more dino fun.
Readers won’t want to wait to find out where the Dinotrux will go next. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 2, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-316-37553-5
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2015
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound.
The titular cookie runs off the page at a bookstore storytime, pursued by young listeners and literary characters.
Following on 13 previous How To Catch… escapades, Wallace supplies sometimes-tortured doggerel and Elkerton, a set of helter-skelter cartoon scenes. Here the insouciant narrator scampers through aisles, avoiding a series of elaborate snares set by the racially diverse young storytime audience with help from some classic figures: “Alice and her mad-hat friends, / as a gift for my unbirthday, / helped guide me through the walls of shelves— / now I’m bound to find my way.” The literary helpers don’t look like their conventional or Disney counterparts in the illustrations, but all are clearly identified by at least a broad hint or visual cue, like the unnamed “wizard” who swoops in on a broom to knock over a tower labeled “Frogwarts.” Along with playing a bit fast and loose with details (“Perhaps the boy with the magic beans / saved me with his cow…”) the author discards his original’s lip-smacking climax to have the errant snack circling back at last to his book for a comfier sort of happily-ever-after.
A brisk if bland offering for series fans, but cleverer metafictive romps abound. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-0935-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sturdy split pages allow readers to create their own inventive combinations from among a handful of prehistoric critters. Hard on the heels of Flip-O-Saurus (2010) drops this companion gallery, printed on durable boards and offering opportunities to mix and match body thirds of eight prehistoric mammals, plus a fish and a bird, to create such portmanteau creatures as a “Gas-Lo-Therium,” or a “Mega-Tor-Don.” The “Mam-Nyc-Nia” places the head of a mammoth next to the wings and torso of an Icaronycteris (prehistoric bat) and the hind legs of a Macrauchenia (a llamalike creature with a short trunk), to amusing effect. Drehsen adds first-person captions on the versos, which will also mix and match to produce chuckles: “Do you like my nose? It’s actually a short trunk…” “I may remind you of an ostrich, because my wings aren’t built for flying…” “My tail looks like a dolphin’s.” With but ten layers to flip, young paleontologists will run through most of the permutations in just a few minutes, but Ball’s precisely detailed ink-and-watercolor portraits of each animal formally posed against plain cream colored backdrops may provide a slightly more enduring draw. A silhouette key on the front pastedown includes a pronunciation guide and indicates scale. Overall, a pleasing complement to more substantive treatments. (Novelty nonfiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7892-1099-9
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Abbeville Kids
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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