Along with the pleasure of pronouncing those multisyllabic dino names, young audiences may find food for thought in the...
Primary socialization and cooperation in action—with dinosaurs, and no grown-ups in sight.
Whether at the art table, doing work at the board or using blocks—“Stegosaurus stacks. / Triceratops erects. / Gallimimus builds it up”—the result is the same: “TYRANNOSAURUS… // WRECKS!” But not only does a room full of angry faces cause a change of heart in the hyperactive theropod, when his efforts to repair the damage founder on his own clumsiness, his classmates pitch in. They don’t do the cleanup themselves, but they work to enable his success. That doesn’t spell an end to disasters, as bulky Apatosaurus doesn’t see contrite T. Rex carefully balancing a tray of juice cups and snacks…but at least this time it’s not his fault. OHora adds digital color to simply drawn classroom scenes in ways that produce a flat, screen-printed look, depicting the dinos in human clothing but with recognizable attributes (they’re also identified on the endpapers). Just for fun he also slips in a view of Styracosaurus practicing his “C”s by repeatedly writing “Climate Change” and a few other visual gags.
Along with the pleasure of pronouncing those multisyllabic dino names, young audiences may find food for thought in the behavioral dynamics on display. (Picture book. 4-6)Pub Date: April 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4197-1035-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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