A whimsical lesson in Mesozoic good manners, with an added treat for young STEM-winders.
Dinosaurs on the playground (and readers who might wish to join them) get schooled both in physics and in the pleasures of noncompetitive play.
Taking alternate ends of a log balanced on a round rock, a succession of ever larger dinos asserts supremacy over the playmate on the opposite end, smugly crowing “I’m bigger than you.” But the tantrum a bright red T. Rex throws after being outweighed by a brachiosaur brings a change of perspective in the form of a much-larger T. Rex: “And I’m your mother!” With parental help, the log is pushed so that only one end is elevated, thus converting it to a slide that puts all of the dinosaurs on the same footing. Using brushwork that evokes traditional East Asian ink drawings (according to the production note she uses Korean paper and paints), Kyung creates minimally detailed prehistoric scenes featuring a cast of slightly anthropomorphic but recognizable dinosaurs. They are all identified, along with size gradations ranging from “Big” through “Massive” and “Immense” to “Biggest,” in a closing gallery, which is followed by diagrams that explain, with a dollop of wry humor, the differences between a seesaw (“lever”) and a slide (“inclined plane”).
A whimsical lesson in Mesozoic good manners, with an added treat for young STEM-winders. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-268312-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
The common desire to fit in gets a silly, if not particularly clever or well-knit, take.
A slug with shell envy finds a worthy surrogate—and then something even better.
With a fine disregard for logic, internal or otherwise, Hendra sends her bright orange slug out to find a shell so that he can join the smiling snails in their play. After failed experiments with a tennis ball, an apple, and an alarm clock tied on his back (neat tricks, considering his total lack of limbs), he straps himself beneath a discarded doughnut. This draws a bird (“Quick, slither for your lives,” counterintuitively cry the snails to one another) that carries Norman off. Sliming himself free of the doughnut (which the bird also drops, for some reason) in midair, Norman falls onto a clothesline. The surprisingly nonharrowing experience has made him eager now to take to the air, so he somehow turns a pair of underpants into a stiff glider. Off he flies with a “Ta-da!” to leave readers admiring his resourcefulness and also, more than likely, disoriented by the story’s arbitrary swerves.
The common desire to fit in gets a silly, if not particularly clever or well-knit, take. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4814-9032-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Aug. 26, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
The approach works for shy nondinosaurs, too.
How to meet, and have fun with, a shy, easily startled dinosaur.
The trick, the narrator cautions, is to be not too loud (or soft), but to speak in “a nice, medium-sounding voice. Bold, yet gentle.” Try singing the “Happy Birthday” song, because every day is someone’s birthday, and anyway Crunch “loves days in general. He’s very positive.” Give the big red sauropod in Pizzoli’s simple cartoon illustrations a bit of time, and enough space, and he may well step out from behind the sheltering screen of trees to relax in your company or even dance or paint your name on a rock. The illustrations will have children and adults chuckling, as the not-insubstantial Crunch attempts to hide in the boughs of a rather small tree and as his expressions change from dubious to delighted. By lying down and saying “Good night, Crunch” in a “calm and soothing voice,” you might even get him—“tired from all the climbing and painting and socializing”—to lie down too. Is he asleep? Then close the book gently. The agenda is barely disguised, but the interchange between narrator and audience has an easy, natural flow.
The approach works for shy nondinosaurs, too. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: May 29, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-399-55056-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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