by Stacey Roderick ; illustrated by Kwanchai Moriya ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2015
One more addition to the thundering herd, easier on the eye than many and as suitable for reading aloud as alone.
Dinos rendered as cut-paper collages in bright, mostly primary colors pose next to basic facts about each in this gallery for younger devotees.
Set up as a guessing game, each entry opens with a spread-sized body part—“What dinosaur had jaws [head, neck, tail, etc.] like this?”—that gives way with a page turn to a full-body view. Along with identifications (“A Tyrannosaurus!”), Roderick supplies three to six simply written sentences of descriptive information for each. The long-clawed plant eater Therizinosaurus and crested Parasaurolophus join the main roster of usual suspects, as does a flying Pteranodon with the proper note that it was not a true dinosaur but a “cousin.” Seven other dinosaurs come in for cameos on a closing spread. The digitally assembled visuals reflect the narrative text’s simplicity; the dinosaurs, ranging in color from vivid scarlet to clear, pale blue, are made from just a few jaggedly cut pieces and sport the same wide, free-cut round eyes. Moriya adds knobbly textures and subtle brush strokes to the surfaces and places the figures in minimally detailed settings composed of mixed photos and cut paper.
One more addition to the thundering herd, easier on the eye than many and as suitable for reading aloud as alone. (Informational picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: March 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-77138-044-7
Page Count: 36
Publisher: Kids Can
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2014
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by Stacey Roderick ; illustrated by Kwanchai Moriya
by Stacey Roderick ; illustrated by Kwanchai Moriya
by Stacey Roderick ; illustrated by Kwanchai Moriya
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by Linda Bailey ; illustrated by Colin Jack ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2014
Well-trodden dino turf, but the grass is still fairly green.
A tongue-in-cheek look at some of the many ways that idle household dinosaurs can be put to work.
Jack casts a host of cartoon dinosaurs—most of them humongous, nearly all smiling and candy bright of hue—in roles as can openers, potato mashers, yard sweepers, umbrellas on rainy days, snowplows, garbage collectors, and like helpers or labor savers. Even babysitters, though, as Bailey aptly notes, “not all dinosaurs are suited to this work.” Still, “[t]he possibilities are amazing!” And even if there aren’t any handy dinos around, she concludes, any live-in octopus, sasquatch, kangaroo or other creature can be likewise exploited. A bespectacled, woolly-haired boy who looks rather a lot like Weird Al Yankovic serves as dino-wrangler in chief, heading up a multiethnic cast of kids who enjoy the dinosaurs’ services. As with all books of this ilk, the humor depends on subtextual visual irony. A group of kids happily flying pterosaur kites sets up a gag featuring a little boy holding a limp string tied to the tail of a grumpy-looking stegosaurus. Changes on this premise have been run over and over since Bernard Most’s If the Dinosaurs Came Back (1978), and though this iteration doesn’t have any fresh twists to offer, at least it’s bright and breezy enough to ward off staleness.
Well-trodden dino turf, but the grass is still fairly green. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: May 13, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-77049-568-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Tundra Books
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
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by Linda Bailey ; illustrated by Natalia Shaloshvili
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by Linda Bailey ; illustrated by Freya Hartas
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by Linda Bailey ; illustrated by Isabelle Follath
by Judy Sierra & illustrated by Tim Bowers ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 10, 2012
Shall we encourage offspring to be more polite? Yes, thank you. Perhaps they will stay that way.
Courtesy goes a long way, even with a T. Rex.
In a grocery store with understandably stunned-looking, wide-eyed shoppers looking on, Bowers sets up a series of encounters between a small girl with pigtails and a very large (and clumsy) green dino sporting pink-sequined glasses. Sierra provides rhymed prompts: “Commotion in the produce aisle! / The dinosaur upsets a pile / Of apples, and they roll away. / If you pick them up, what will she say?” Correct responses (“Thank you”) in large, bold type follow. Though some of the exchanges are problematic, as the child seems to be in the store alone—in one meeting, the dino offers her some snack food and in the checkout line gives her money when she runs short—the situations all engender a set of polite phrases from “Hello, I'm pleased to meet you” to “Excuse me,” “No, thank you” and the ever-useful “I'm sorry” that will come in handy in any setting. Take socialization skills to the next step with Sesyle Joslin’s timeless, Sendak-illustrated What Do You Say, Dear? (1958, 1986) and What Do You Do, Dear? (1961, 1993).
Shall we encourage offspring to be more polite? Yes, thank you. Perhaps they will stay that way. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: Jan. 10, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-375-86720-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2011
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by Judy Sierra ; illustrated by Marc Brown
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by Judy Sierra ; illustrated by Eric Comstock
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by Judy Sierra ; illustrated by Kevin Hawkes
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