Young readers drawn by the gloriously toothy dinosaur posing on the cover of this tongue-in-cheek space opera may be astonished to discover that he’s the episode’s hero. Dispatched from Planet Jurassica to investigate a mysterious crash on a nearby moon, intrepid Captain Raptor (as in velociraptor) and his scaly crew weather a host of dangers—repeatedly punctuated by variations on “Could this be the end of Captain Raptor?”—before coming to the rescue of a stranded set of small, tail-less mammalian aliens. O’Brien illustrates the nonstop action in graphic-novel style, filling variously shaped panels with detailed scenes of colorful dinosaurs in retro body armor working riveted control panels, creeping through a jungle and similarly appropriate activities. In the end, Captain Raptor bids farewell to the grateful travelers from Earth and blasts off for some space exploration of his own. Readers not yet up to James Gurney’s “Dinotopia” tales will roar with approval. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: March 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-8027-8935-8
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Walker
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2005
A close encounter of the best kind.
Left behind when the space bus departs, a child discovers that the moon isn’t as lifeless as it looks.
While the rest of the space-suited class follows the teacher like ducklings, one laggard carrying crayons and a sketchbook sits down to draw our home planet floating overhead, falls asleep, and wakes to see the bus zooming off. The bright yellow bus, the gaggle of playful field-trippers, and even the dull gray boulders strewn over the equally dull gray lunar surface have a rounded solidity suggestive of Plasticine models in Hare’s wordless but cinematic scenes…as do the rubbery, one-eyed, dull gray creatures (think: those stress-busting dolls with ears that pop out when squeezed) that emerge from the regolith. The mutual shock lasts but a moment before the lunarians eagerly grab the proffered crayons to brighten the bland gray setting with silly designs. The creatures dive into the dust when the bus swoops back down but pop up to exchange goodbye waves with the errant child, who turns out to be an olive-skinned kid with a mop of brown hair last seen drawing one of their new friends with the one crayon—gray, of course—left in the box. Body language is expressive enough in this debut outing to make a verbal narrative superfluous.
A close encounter of the best kind. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-8234-4253-9
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Margaret Ferguson/Holiday House
Review Posted Online: Feb. 5, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Swinburne sets out to teach young children about how shadows are created, describing night as a shadow on the earth, and giving children tangible reasons for why shadows vary in size, shape, and location. The latter half of the book invites readers to guess the origins of the shadows in vivid full-color photographs; subsequent pages provide the answers to the mysteries. A foreword contains information regarding the scientific reasons for shadows, which can be explained to small children, but it is the array of photographs that truly invites youngsters to take a closer look and analyze the world around them with an eye for the details. (Picture book/nonfiction. 3-5).
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-56397-724-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Boyds Mills
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1999
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