A sweet story readers are unlikely to forget.
Thanks to some kind words, Miyanishi’s Tyrannosaurus experiences an unexpected friendship.
A little Spinosaurus named Wimpy is poking about the seashore for red berries when a Tyrannosaurus appears looking for a meal. Just as the Tyrannosaurus is about to chow down on Wimpy, there is a giant earthquake. The ground cracks, the piece of land they are standing on breaks off, and the two dinosaurs drift away. As they spend more time together, they form an unexpected friendship. Wimpy shares that he was gathering red berries for his sick mother, and the Tyrannosaurus begins to empathize with him. When the Tyrannosaurs picks berries for them and protects Wimpy from a flying Tapejara, the Spinosaurus showers the Tyrannosaurus with compliments, calling him “cool” and “kind.” After another unexpected earthquake, the Tyrannosaurus makes an enormous sacrifice for his friend. In the end, the two friends can no longer be with each other, and Wimpy learns how to reflect on good memories and the kindness of his friend. Through this unusual circumstance, there are lessons of empathy, compassion, friendship, and self-sacrifice. The Tyrannosaurus’ response to Wimpy and subsequent behavior demonstrate how encouraging and powerful positive words can be. Miyanishi’s trademark artwork is very bold and vibrant, and the translation features great use of onomatopoeia throughout the story. (This book was reviewed digitally with 7-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 48% of actual size.)
A sweet story readers are unlikely to forget. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-940842-44-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Museyon
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
A whimsical lesson in Mesozoic good manners, with an added treat for young STEM-winders.
Dinosaurs on the playground (and readers who might wish to join them) get schooled both in physics and in the pleasures of noncompetitive play.
Taking alternate ends of a log balanced on a round rock, a succession of ever larger dinos asserts supremacy over the playmate on the opposite end, smugly crowing “I’m bigger than you.” But the tantrum a bright red T. Rex throws after being outweighed by a brachiosaur brings a change of perspective in the form of a much-larger T. Rex: “And I’m your mother!” With parental help, the log is pushed so that only one end is elevated, thus converting it to a slide that puts all of the dinosaurs on the same footing. Using brushwork that evokes traditional East Asian ink drawings (according to the production note she uses Korean paper and paints), Kyung creates minimally detailed prehistoric scenes featuring a cast of slightly anthropomorphic but recognizable dinosaurs. They are all identified, along with size gradations ranging from “Big” through “Massive” and “Immense” to “Biggest,” in a closing gallery, which is followed by diagrams that explain, with a dollop of wry humor, the differences between a seesaw (“lever”) and a slide (“inclined plane”).
A whimsical lesson in Mesozoic good manners, with an added treat for young STEM-winders. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: July 31, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-268312-0
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
Young readers who think the dinosaurs are all extinct will appreciate this truthful revelation. Well, truth-y, anyway.
Chickens are descended from dinosaurs, and here’s a chicken with a family photo album to prove it.
First the chuffed chicken—or “Gallus gallus domesticus” to a skeptical unseen narrator—opens the album to snapshots of “The Velociraptor Family” to point out similar feet and feathers, then goes on to more distant relatives such as the Iguanodons, the Stegosaurs (“We look a lot alike, don’t you think?”), and the Triceratops clan. Following views of a falling asteroid and other prehistoric catastrophes, the proud pullet struts off to clamber atop a huge egg…only to flee in panic when it hatches out not a “cute little Triceratops chicken” or some other safe playmate but a toothy T. Rex. In his cartoon illustrations van Genechten doesn’t try for realistic detail but captures “Mommy Loci and Daddy Rapt” rolling past on a stone-wheeled tandem bike, plasters each album leaf with droll captions (“Our first Diplodo-kiss”), and sets up the climactic visual punchline with an earlier portrait of drooling cousin Rex. The egg appears from nowhere in the story, but something very like it is visible in an endpaper gallery of marbled-paper dino eggs. Actual information is included in the form of dates (all B.C.) and (inexplicably) “tickets” scrapbooked into the pages with each dino’s weight in pounds.
Young readers who think the dinosaurs are all extinct will appreciate this truthful revelation. Well, truth-y, anyway. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-60537-423-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clavis
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
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