For some young readers, this level of ridiculousness, along with the unsophisticated illustrations, may make the book a...
In Stoltz’s (Deer Run, 2016, etc.) funny and anachronistic picture book, being different can save the day—especially if you’re a vegetarian dinosaur.
“Al was a T-Rex who didn’t like meat,” Stoltz opens, neatly establishing the story of a young dino who likes veggies and fruits, most especially strawberries. It isn’t that Al’s picky; he doesn’t even mind when bugs have made holes in his strawberries. It’s that he doesn’t like what all the other T. Rexes like to eat, and he’s mocked because of it. His parents don’t understand him, either. They take him to his chef aunt to learn to eat proper meals (they’re shown flying on a pteranodon to get there). When the stegosaurus steaks and dinosaur bones don’t change his mind, she throws up her tiny arms in defeat and sends him packing. A storm hits the valley, and all the T. Rex kids take shelter at the (very modern, locker-filled) school. A leafy tree blocks the exit, and no one can move it out of the way with their too-small arms. Al decides to eat his way out, and when the other youngsters aren’t willing to help, Al saves the day. While there’s a nice moral lesson here about valuing people with differences, kids will be less focused on that than on the silliness of the tale: dinosaur chefs! A vegetarian T. Rex who loves strawberries! A football team that can’t possibly catch or pass! The computer-designed, clip-art–esque illustrations may not inspire young artists, and the font choice doesn’t lend itself to readability, but anachronistic details (the aunt cooks on an outdoor grill) amuse, and the vocabulary is spot-on, especially for dinosaur fans who won’t stumble over “stegosaurus” or “prehistoric.”
Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2016
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 33
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs.
The Heffley family’s house undergoes a disastrous attempt at home improvement.
When Great Aunt Reba dies, she leaves some money to the family. Greg’s mom calls a family meeting to determine what to do with their share, proposing home improvements and then overruling the family’s cartoonish wish lists and instead pushing for an addition to the kitchen. Before bringing in the construction crew, the Heffleys attempt to do minor maintenance and repairs themselves—during which Greg fails at the work in various slapstick scenes. Once the professionals are brought in, the problems keep getting worse: angry neighbors, terrifying problems in walls, and—most serious—civil permitting issues that put the kibosh on what work’s been done. Left with only enough inheritance to patch and repair the exterior of the house—and with the school’s dismal standardized test scores as a final straw—Greg’s mom steers the family toward moving, opening up house-hunting and house-selling storylines (and devastating loyal Rowley, who doesn’t want to lose his best friend). While Greg’s positive about the move, he’s not completely uncaring about Rowley’s action. (And of course, Greg himself is not as unaffected as he wishes.) The gags include effectively placed callbacks to seemingly incidental events (the “stress lizard” brought in on testing day is particularly funny) and a lampoon of after-school-special–style problem books. Just when it seems that the Heffleys really will move, a new sequence of chaotic trouble and property destruction heralds a return to the status quo. Whew.
Readers can still rely on this series to bring laughs. (Graphic/fiction hybrid. 8-12)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4197-3903-3
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Nov. 18, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own...
The sturdy Little Blue Truck is back for his third adventure, this time delivering Christmas trees to his band of animal pals.
The truck is decked out for the season with a Christmas wreath that suggests a nose between headlights acting as eyeballs. Little Blue loads up with trees at Toad’s Trees, where five trees are marked with numbered tags. These five trees are counted and arithmetically manipulated in various ways throughout the rhyming story as they are dropped off one by one to Little Blue’s friends. The final tree is reserved for the truck’s own use at his garage home, where he is welcomed back by the tree salestoad in a neatly circular fashion. The last tree is already decorated, and Little Blue gets a surprise along with readers, as tiny lights embedded in the illustrations sparkle for a few seconds when the last page is turned. Though it’s a gimmick, it’s a pleasant surprise, and it fits with the retro atmosphere of the snowy country scenes. The short, rhyming text is accented with colored highlights, red for the animal sounds and bright green for the numerical words in the Christmas-tree countdown.
Little Blue’s fans will enjoy the animal sounds and counting opportunities, but it’s the sparkling lights on the truck’s own tree that will put a twinkle in a toddler’s eyes. (Picture book. 2-5)Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-32041-3
Page Count: 24
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 11, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
