Inane, both psychologically and plotwise.
Gregory wakes up in bed transformed…not into a giant cockroach, but a T. Rex.
Many’s deliberate riff on the premise of Kafka’s classic tale is the high point of this incoherent hash. For no reason beyond a physical change that only he can apparently see, the moment he rises on the morning he’s scheduled to present a school report on the extinction of the dinosaurs by meteorite, Gregory becomes a destructive monster. He rips his breakfast-cereal box apart with a roar, bellows when he realizes he’s left his diorama at home, and savagely destroys his classmates’ elaborate dino-projects. For this last act, rather than being punished or even scolded, he’s briefly sent to the office, then actually applauded once teacher and students understand that he was supposedly imitating a T. Rex. As if! In fact, only his harried single mom reacts realistically to his acting out. Jaskiel brings like murkiness to the illustrations, which feature a flailing white lad whose anxiety at a teacher’s question looks more like severe nausea and who in dino form looks like Barney’s anthropomorphic green cousin. At a convenient point Gregory changes back to a boy and, after deciding that night that T. Rexes aren’t all that cool, dreams of becoming a (presumably less aggressive) triceratops. In the pictures the adults are all white, but the students are a diverse group.
Inane, both psychologically and plotwise. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4556-2304-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pelican
Review Posted Online: Oct. 27, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
Tried and true, both in content and formula.
Parting—of the temporary rather than permanent kind—is the latest topic to be dino-sorted in this venerable series’ 14th outing.
Nobody dies and the series is showing no signs of flagging, so reading anything ominous into the title is overthinking it. Instead, Teague and Yolen once again treat readers to a succession of outsized, gaily patterned dinosaurs throwing tantrums or acting out, this time as dad packs up for a business trip or even just sets off to work, grandparents pause at the door for goodbyes, mom drops her offspring off at school on a first day, parents take a date night, or a moving van pulls up to the house. Per series formula, the tone switches partway through when bad behavior gives way to (suggested) better: “They tell all the grown-ups / just how they are feeling. / It helps right away / for fast dinosaur healing.” Hugs, kisses, and a paper heart might also be more constructive responses than weeping, clinging, and making mayhem. Dinosaurian pronouns mostly alternate between he and she until switching to the generic their in the last part. In the art, the human cast mixes figures with different racial presentations and the date-night parents are an interracial couple, but there is no evident sign of same-gender or other nonnormative domestic situations.
Tried and true, both in content and formula. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-338-36335-7
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
Young fans of all things big and noisy will make trax for this dynamic dino-diversion.
The prehistoric metal monsters dug up and introduced in Dinotrux! (2009) break out—twice!—in this smashing (crashing, roaring, grinding) sequel.
Exploding through the dino-museum’s wall in the wake of a particularly stressful Kindergarten Day, enraged Tyrannosaurus Trux rolls off to climb a skyscraper. Meanwhile, hungry Garbageadon chows down on local traffic, a pair of Velocitractors plow up Main Street and Cementosaurus dumps a heaping “present” in the town square. Enough! declares the mayor, firmly dispatching the miscreant mega vehicles to school to learn better behavior. Further chaos threatens when they burst out again, though, taking along the children who have introduced them to the wonders of (truck) books and other reading. Towering massively atop heavy-duty tires, with wide, headlight eyes and toothy maws agape, Gall’s brawny beasts make modern construction vehicles look like jumped-up SmartCars. But even the most brutish dinotrux can find a place in today’s world, as the final playground scene suggests.
Young fans of all things big and noisy will make trax for this dynamic dino-diversion. (Picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-316-13288-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2012
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