An intriguing cover, attractive, action-filled illustrations, and an amusing story add up to a beginning reader with solid...
In this comical emergent reader, a half-dozen eggs that are past their sell-by date provide a big surprise when they hatch into baby dinosaurs.
The unnamed narrator of the story notices the eggs moving in their carton, and soon they’ve hatched into tiny dinosaurs that the boy’s mother mistakes for toys. The boy hides the six prehistoric reptiles, all different types, in his room for a while, with some funny results as he strives to keep his parents out of his room: “Don’t come in! I’m naked!” he lies. In fairy-tale fashion, the dinosaurs grow to full size rapidly, eventually bursting through the roof of the family home. The boy’s parents are surprised at this development but receptive to their new pets, and the dinosaurs are welcomed into the neighborhood. Watercolor illustrations with pen-and-ink outlines depict smiling dinosaurs with bulging eyes and mottled skin colors. The dinosaurs are all a friendly bunch, giving rides to the neighbor kids and a fast mode of aerial transportation for the boy’s mom to get to work. Though the story isn’t particularly inventive, the enduring popularity of dinosaurs reappearing in the modern age will make this a useful addition to collections for new readers in libraries and classrooms.
An intriguing cover, attractive, action-filled illustrations, and an amusing story add up to a beginning reader with solid appeal. (Early reader. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-8234-3196-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Holiday House
Review Posted Online: June 28, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
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
Affirmation that you can have dreams the size of a prehistoric flying reptile.
It is possible to be whatever you want.
When his teacher tells students they can be anything they want, Tommy announces his ambition: to be a pterodactyl. Unsurprisingly, classmates jeer. Tommy’s sure a pterodactyl’s diet of live fish would be an improvement over cafeteria fare; living in a cave in a cliff overlooking the sea where no one could visit him sounds ideal; and, as he explains to the bus driver, people would pay him, as a pterodactyl, not to pick them up and fly them places. Kids on the bus tease him mercilessly. When Tommy arrives home, his dad listens to him carefully and suggests that Tommy “live like a pterodactyl, even if on the outside you still look like Tommy.” Dad accepts and understands his son’s aspirations, and the two pretend to be pterodactyls all afternoon. The result: Because of his strongly held, actually logical beliefs and dad’s affirmation, Tommy does grow up to be a pterodactyl—sort of; kids will cheer the satisfying, makes-perfect-sense ending. This empowering story is all about having seemingly unattainable goals and being lucky enough to have supporters willing to help achieve them. Tommy’s a sweet, realistic, albeit dreamy, character; his dad, a model, caring parent. The colorful, somewhat stylized illustrations are lively and humorous. Tommy and his dad are light-skinned. Classmates and school personnel are racially diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
Affirmation that you can have dreams the size of a prehistoric flying reptile. (Picture book. 5-8)Pub Date: July 25, 2023
ISBN: 9780593110652
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2023
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