Despite some glitches in the scansion and lack of originality, this outing goes down pretty easily.
This familiar dinosaur series takes a look at a favorite treat.
From the trip to the grocery store through consumption, these cookies present a satisfying crunch. There's male and female supervision (of both baking and the dinos themselves); one lady works in the kitchen in dress and pearls. Yolen's now-familiar rhythm loses some of its lightness in occasionally forced rhymes. “Does a dinosaur grab for a cookie that's hot? / No, that's something that he does decidedly NOT!” Scratch-and-sniff elements add sweet smells. For budding pastry chefs old enough to mix the ingredients, the addition of two recipes may provide inspiration (“Ask an adult to help you bake”). In the spirit of the series, there is a heavy focus on manners (and sweets in moderation) as the dinos devour their goodies; they drink milk daintily and hold the bag of chocolate chips in the supermarket instead of ripping it open.
Despite some glitches in the scansion and lack of originality, this outing goes down pretty easily. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-38253-3
Page Count: 14
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 12, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2012
Not a great choice for the youngest dinosaur lovers.
A board-book ode to parental love as old as the dinosaurs.
A line of text on the left of each spread reads like a dinosaur-themed valentine that a third grader might choose, with punishingly punny wordplay that incorporates dinosaur-related words. On the facing page a dinosaur pair—a baby and an adult—gaze lovingly into each other’s eyes against whimsical, pastel-hued prehistoric-ish backgrounds. In smaller print, in all caps, at the bottom of the left page is the scientific name for the dinosaur referenced by the text and picture followed by a helpful phonetic pronunciation guide. White-outlined footprints appear next to their names, though the white is sometimes difficult to see against the pastel pages. Ten of the best-known dinosaurs are included. Twisting the dinosaur names to fit the loving sentiments succeeds some of the time but more often results in tortured text, well beyond the understanding of the board book audience. The line accompanying two hugging velociraptors, for instance, is just confusing: “Wrap-TOR arms around me, / with you I’ll always stay.” Others are just plain clumsy: “I-wanna-GUANODON you kisses, / I truly just adore you.” Very young children, even those fascinated by dinosaurs, will not get it. Older dinosaur fans will be put off by the babyish format.
Not a great choice for the youngest dinosaur lovers. (Board book. 18 mos.-3)Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7282-2295-0
Page Count: 24
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Review Posted Online: March 1, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
This should be a hit.
Little ones can move the wings, feet, tail, or mouth of three different dinosaurs and one pterosaur via sliding panels.
On one double-page spread, young readers meet a friendly stegosaurus as the text reads “Stegosaurus / Stomp! Clomp! / Go its great big feet.” A one-sentence fact on the species (“Stegosaurus was as long as a bus!”) floats in a smaller font on the page, and a pronunciation guide in parentheses sits in the bottom-left corner. The sounds “Stomp! Clomp!” are printed again near the arrow directing little digits to an embedded panel to push up or pull down, making the creature stomp and clomp its feet. This pattern is repeated three more times on other spreads featuring a pterodactyl with wings to flap, a diplodocus with a tail to swish, and a tyrannosaurus rex with jaws to snap. Lodge’s art is pleasingly flat and cartoony, employing simple shapes and patterns, googly eyes, bold colors, and playful smiles. While the book is slight on page count, the thick pages, sturdy panels, and easy-to-manipulate sliding mechanisms mean the interactive features are likely to survive several hours of robust play. Even though the image is later repeated on the inner pages, the T. rex on the cover steals the show with eyelids and mouth that shift in a playfully menacing manner with each slide of the panel.
This should be a hit. (Board book. 1-3)Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-338-54781-8
Page Count: 10
Publisher: Cartwheel/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2019
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