Dinos take to the air in the latest joyride from the creators of Dinosailors (2003) and All Aboard the Dinotrain (2006).
It takes multiple tries and a mighty dino-push to get their Brobdignagian cargo plane off the ground, but once airborne it’s all fun and games. “They dangle from their wide trapeze / And dinodance on wings with ease. / The crowd below screams out for more. / They love to watch them dinosoar!”—until sudden winds and spins prompt a hasty “dinojump.” Outfitting his dino-aviators (all easily recognizable types, identified on the endpapers) in goggles and scarves, Fine uses broad and busy brushwork in full-bleed double-page spreads. He gives his cast a comically massive look and captures an entirely appropriate feeling of frenzied, slapstick action in keeping with the rhymed text’s overcaffeinated tempo. Once down safely, all “kiss the ground, give dinothanks, / And promise, ‘No more dinopranks!’ ” As if.
Dinosaur fans, or anyone who enjoys horseplay on a humongous scale, will happily welcome back these gargantuan goofs. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: June 19, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-15-206016-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: March 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2012
Categories: CHILDREN'S DINOSAURS & PREHISTORIC CREATURES
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A guide to better behavior—at home, on the playground, in class, and in the library.
Serving as a sort of overview for the series’ 12 previous exercises in behavior modeling, this latest outing opens with a set of badly behaving dinos, identified in an endpaper key and also inconspicuously in situ. Per series formula, these are paired to leading questions like “Does she spit out her broccoli onto the floor? / Does he shout ‘I hate meat loaf!’ while slamming the door?” (Choruses of “NO!” from young audiences are welcome.) Midway through, the tone changes (“No, dinosaurs don’t”), and good examples follow to the tune of positive declarative sentences: “They wipe up the tables and vacuum the floors. / They share all the books and they never slam doors,” etc. Teague’s customary, humongous prehistoric crew, all depicted in exact detail and with wildly flashy coloration, fill both their spreads and their human-scale scenes as their human parents—no same-sex couples but some are racially mixed, and in one the man’s the cook—join a similarly diverse set of sibs and other children in either disapprobation or approving smiles. All in all, it’s a well-tested mix of oblique and prescriptive approaches to proper behavior as well as a lighthearted way to play up the use of “please,” “thank you,” and even “I’ll help when you’re hurt.”
Formulaic but not stale…even if it does mine previous topical material rather than expand it. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-36334-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Blue Sky/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Aug. 18, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2020
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In lunchbox-style packaging, a booklet of dino facts and a prehistoric panorama are presented on both a folded poster and a jigsaw puzzle.
Strother devotes 10 of her 32 pages to ornithischian, or bird-hipped, dinosaurs (correctly noting that they are not the ancestors of modern birds). She also manages to survey the Mesozoic Era in general, introduce a few theropods, describe fossilization, and present up-to-date information about dinosaur colors and extinction theories. All of this is crammed onto thematic spreads with small paintings and photos of fossils or generic images of fleshed-out reconstructions in minimally detailed settings. Francis contributes a collective portrait of dinosaurs of diverse size and period posing together over a labeled timeline. This can be hung up and, as a 130-piece jigsaw, assembled. Also available from the same author and illustrator, and likewise in a round-corned box with a carrying handle and snap close, is Oceans, a densely populated dive into the deep.
Gift items for confirmed young enthusiasts, with a substantial but not wearisome informational load. (Informational novelty. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62686-145-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Silver Dolphin
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
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