First published in Great Britain, Wallace’s dramatic offering presents a day in the life of a very hungry dinosaur. It gets pretty graphic: T-Rex targets a vulnerable triceratops, “His teeth bite and slice. His jaws shut like a trap . . . He tears out great mouthfuls.” Then he leaves its carcass to rot and moves on to his next meal. The size of the Tyrannosaurus’s teeth, the scope of its jaw, the size of its forearms in relation to the rest of its body—Wallace weaves these details into the narrative, giving readers a real sense of the creature’s enormous size and power, its habits, and prehistoric habitat. Bostock’s full-bleed illustrations suit the story well—they’re realistic, but not too scary. In the closing spread, fiery volcanic debris rains down on the dinosaur’s head as his claws press the flesh of an edmontosaurus. This compelling introduction to dinosaur life will whet new fans’ appetites and leave experienced dino-philes drooling. (Picture book. 4-8)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-689-87317-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Droll dino fare for the lower reaches of the format’s audience.
Prehistoric prey and predator reach an accord in this graphic kickoff for fledgling readers.
Opening with a primer on graphic visual conventions and how to read panels in order, the tale introduces Thunder, a humongous theropod, and tiny, birdlike Cluck. From their first encounter, the latter, refusing to flee and seemingly undisturbed by all the roaring and tooth gnashing, launches a persistent campaign to winkle an admission of friendship from the former. In cartoon scenes of one to three big panels per page, Thunder’s indignant “That is not how this goes!” evolves in stages into a grumpy admission of defeat: “Something tells me hanging out with you will be…interesting.” If the vocabulary at times seems a bit advanced for the elemental art and plotline, it’s mostly spread out into easily digestible bits punctuated by wordless panels and more roaring. Many of Thompson’s panels are vertical, emphasizing the difference between burly, toothy orange-and-purple Thunder and scrawny Cluck, whom Thunder could easily swallow whole without noticing—but doesn’t. As unlikely friends go, this isn’t the weirdest pairing—trailing, for instance, William Steig’s Amos & Boris (1971) or Salina Yoon’s Penguin and Pinecone (2012)—but it’s extreme enough for even very young children to see the contrast as comical. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-12-inch double-page spreads viewed at 80% of actual size.)
Droll dino fare for the lower reaches of the format’s audience. (Graphic early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: June 29, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5344-8652-2
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Simon Spotlight
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
With its companion, durable, content-rich overviews likely to draw and engage board-book grads.
From France, a STEM-centric guide for younger dinophiles to dinosaur types, habits, characteristics, predecessors, descendants, and study.
Being printed on card stock between sturdy covers with rounded corners, this broad overview is set up to survive the heavy use it is likely to get from fledgling readers eager to know everything there is to know about the paleo-world. Though at least one of the four illustrators is overfond of googly eyes and all use a relatively muted palette of skin tones and patterns, the multiple dinos on display in each populous gallery are generally drawn with attention to distinctive physical details. They are sometimes shown in flight from a predator or even (neatly) chowing down on prey. Along with general commentary presented in one- or two-sentence bites, the dinosaurs each come with an identifying label and a plain-language caption that highlights action (“walking on two legs”) or a significant feature (“huge claws”). A side panel on each spread zeroes in on a special topic like “What did dinosaurs smell like?” with cross-references at the bottom, and each of the four topical chapters ends with a review quiz. A final chapter shows modern researchers at work in the field, a lab, a library, and elsewhere. The cartoon human figures there and between chapters nearly all look like children but are on closer looks diverse in age as well as sex and skin color. That also holds true in the co-published Oceans and Marine Life, by Stéphanie Babin and translated by Hardenberg.Despite a single chapter on marine animals and lots of marine flora and fauna in the art, this title is largely focused on human use. Besides spreads devoted to beaches and boats of various sorts, topics range from aquaculture and water sports to aquariums and related topics like pollution, conservation, and the water cycle.
With its companion, durable, content-rich overviews likely to draw and engage board-book grads. (map, timeline, index) (Informational picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-2-40802-467-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Twirl/Chronicle
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
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