by Teri Daniels & illustrated by Tracey Campbell Pearson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2000
A little brother gets a chance to be as teasing and bullyish as his big brother in this bit of purposeless wish-fulfillment. Gregory’s older brother Mark gets all the cool stuff—and he’s not above grinding Gregory’s face in it, literally. One evening at dinner, Gregory’s clueless parents urge him to eat up to be as big as Mark. But Gregory wants to be bigger and, lo, as he tears into his steak he morphs into a monstrous G-Rex—a T-Rex of the Gregory persuasion. He starts to intimidate and threaten his family: “MORE MEAT!” He roars. “Get more meat or I eat Mark!” So they frantically set about stuffing “G-Rex” with meat. When he is sated, he commences to bully Mark: over the TV; which beds will be slept in; who will shoot the basketball. When his family finally flees next door, G-Rex gets bored, has a little fit, and transforms back into Gregory. Even though he has broken Mark’s best basketball trophy during his tantrum, the boys work out their anger and proceed to have a great time at basketball. If retribution isn’t the answer, as seems to be suggested here, then what does inspire the boys to suddenly become chummy, a situation that feels utterly unconvincing because there are no previous referents? The story isn’t messy like life, it is just aimless, and Pearson’s artwork is too frail a scaffolding to give this shapeless narrative any structure. (Picture book. 5-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-531-30243-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Orchard
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2000
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by Jonathan Stutzman ; illustrated by Jay Fleck ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 5, 2019
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back.
With such short arms, how can Tiny T. Rex give a sad friend a hug?
Fleck goes for cute in the simple, minimally detailed illustrations, drawing the diminutive theropod with a chubby turquoise body and little nubs for limbs under a massive, squared-off head. Impelled by the sight of stegosaurian buddy Pointy looking glum, little Tiny sets out to attempt the seemingly impossible, a comforting hug. Having made the rounds seeking advice—the dino’s pea-green dad recommends math; purple, New Age aunt offers cucumber juice (“That is disgusting”); red mom tells him that it’s OK not to be able to hug (“You are tiny, but your heart is big!”), and blue and yellow older sibs suggest practice—Tiny takes up the last as the most immediately useful notion. Unfortunately, the “tree” the little reptile tries to hug turns out to be a pterodactyl’s leg. “Now I am falling,” Tiny notes in the consistently self-referential narrative. “I should not have let go.” Fortunately, Tiny lands on Pointy’s head, and the proclamation that though Rexes’ hugs may be tiny, “I will do my very best because you are my very best friend” proves just the mood-lightening ticket. “Thank you, Tiny. That was the biggest hug ever.” Young audiences always find the “clueless grown-ups” trope a knee-slapper, the overall tone never turns preachy, and Tiny’s instinctive kindness definitely puts him at (gentle) odds with the dinky dino star of Bob Shea’s Dinosaur Vs. series.
Wins for compassion and for the refusal to let physical limitations hold one back. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: March 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-4521-7033-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2018
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by David Wiesner ; illustrated by David Wiesner ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2020
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy.
Robo-parents Diode and Lugnut present daughter Cathode with a new little brother—who requires, unfortunately, some assembly.
Arriving in pieces from some mechanistic version of Ikea, little Flange turns out to be a cute but complicated tyke who immediately falls apart…and then rockets uncontrollably about the room after an overconfident uncle tinkers with his basic design. As a squad of helpline techies and bevies of neighbors bearing sludge cake and like treats roll in, the cluttered and increasingly crowded scene deteriorates into madcap chaos—until at last Cath, with help from Roomba-like robodog Sprocket, stages an intervention by whisking the hapless new arrival off to a backyard workshop for a proper assembly and software update. “You’re such a good big sister!” warbles her frazzled mom. Wiesner’s robots display his characteristic clean lines and even hues but endearingly look like vaguely anthropomorphic piles of random jet-engine parts and old vacuum cleaners loosely connected by joints of armored cable. They roll hither and thither through neatly squared-off panels and pages in infectiously comical dismay. Even the end’s domestic tranquility lasts only until Cathode spots the little box buried in the bigger one’s packing material: “TWINS!” (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 52% of actual size.)
A retro-futuristic romp, literally and figuratively screwy. (Picture book. 5-7)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-544-98731-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2020
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