Dreamy dinosaur doings.
What would you do with a dinosaur?
Young Marianne would share wondrous nighttime adventures. First, she’d dig up a dinosaur on a beach, assemble its bones, and wish it alive. She does so in this rhyming picture book while “fisherfolk” worry about her. For some adults, this “Marianne” who discovers a seaside dinosaur might conjure Mary Anning, the 19th-century English paleontologist. Like that scientist, the protagonist diligently arranges bones until her fossils take shape. Unlike Anning, Marianne names her discovery Bony, fervently wishing it to spring to life. The book then soars into the dream world; readers probably won’t notice or mind the disconnect. Bony, a smiling, green-scaled apatosaurus look-alike, swims and flies with Marianne into magical lands where they meet fanciful beings and discover a “magical moonlit island” filled with diverse children and their fantasy dinos. (Marianne presents white.) Since all this happens before these children go to sleep, what will they possibly dream about after? The ending finds the story back at the beach, the residents now unconcerned, and the kids digging for dinosaurs—and holding fast to their nighttime secrets. The verses in this cheerful dreamscape mostly read and scan rhythmically, but some are clunky. The scribbly illustrations, dominated by pale greens, teals, and sandy yellow and punctuated by Marianne’s red mop, are lively and atmospheric. Kids will appreciate the silver-foil patches on the book cover’s round moon.
Dreamy dinosaur doings. (Picture book. 3-6)Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5476-0322-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
An unfortunately simplistic delivery of a well-intentioned message.
Drawing on lyrics from her Mormon children’s hymn of the same title, Pearson explores diversity and acceptance in a more secular context.
Addressing people of varying ages, races, origins, and abilities in forced rhymes that omit the original version’s references to Jesus, various speakers describe how they—unlike “some people”—will “show [their] love for” their fellow humans. “If you don’t talk as most people do / some people talk and laugh at you,” a child tells a tongue-tied classmate. “But I won’t! / I won’t! / I’ll talk with you / and giggle too. / That’s how I’ll show my love for you.” Unfortunately, many speakers’ actions feel vague and rather patronizing even as they aim to include and reassure. “I know you bring such interesting things,” a wheelchair user says, welcoming a family “born far, far away” who arrives at the airport; the adults wear Islamic clothing. As pink- and brown-skinned worshipers join a solitary brown-skinned person who somehow “[doesn’t] pray as some people pray” on a church pew, a smiling, pink-skinned worshiper’s declaration that “we’re all, I see, one family” raises echoes of the problematic assertion, “I don’t see color.” The speakers’ exclamations of “But I won’t!” after noting others’ prejudiced behavior reads more as self-congratulation than promise of inclusion. Sanders’ geometric, doll-like human figures are cheery but stiff, and the text’s bold, uppercase typeface switches jarringly to cursive for the refrain, “That’s how I’ll show my love for you.” Characters’ complexions include paper-white, yellow, pink, and brown.
An unfortunately simplistic delivery of a well-intentioned message. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4236-5395-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
A worthy message wrapped up in a playful romp.
A romp about saying “I don’t know.”
An apartment building full of cartoonlike creatures shown interacting through their windows (a clever illustrative decision) evokes the lively life of urban living. When one neighbor asks another (via the window) to wake them up in “20 coconuts,” the neighbor agrees but then admits to himself that he doesn’t know what that means—something that bothers him because he is known for being a know-it-all; in fact, he comes from a family of know-it-alls. Ah, pressure! The know-it-all gets himself into a tizzy, cleans his ears and finds a sock and a chicken, consults “Phoney” (his cellphone), and even gets his brain washed by Wally’s Wash Works. If this all sounds extremely silly and somewhat chaotic, it is—which means kids will probably love it. Eventually, he wakes up his neighbor with his yelling (right on time, apparently) but admits to her he doesn’t know what 20 coconuts means. She offers to explain, but then he says he has to be somewhere in “11 bananas,” throwing her into confusion. The energetic (some may say frenzied) tone is amplified by illustrations that have lots going on, with various characters talking in dialogue bubbles to each other, but the message itself comes across as a little light until an explanatory note from the “brains” spells it out—it’s OK to say you don’t know. (This book was reviewed digitally.)
A worthy message wrapped up in a playful romp. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: Sept. 20, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-31196-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books
Review Posted Online: May 24, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
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