A bland tale for diaper-clad dinophiles, mildly spiced with visual pleasures and surprises.
Children who dote on silly, googly-eyed monsters need look no further than this imported tale of a wolf chasing an errant chicken egg.
When one of Mrs. Hen’s eggs rolls out of the nest and down a hole, helpful Wolf Pakkun dives down in pursuit and fetches up facing a huge fossil skull. Yikes! But then: “ ‘Ha, ha, ha!’ a little voice laughed, ‘Welcome to the Land of Dinosaurs!’ ” That’s Ptera, a beaky, comically cross-eyed new friend. Kimura stocks said land with oddly proportioned, loudly colored cartoon beasties loosely based on recognizable prehistoric creatures and placed in alien-looking settings featuring strange plants and clumps of jagged volcanoes. Pakkun searches for the egg over land and under the sea until, at the suggestion of Mrs. Saurapod [sic], he comes at last to a large pile of eggs—all of which hatch into a teeming, diverse swarm of smiling baby dinos plus, for sharper-eyed viewers to spot, one tiny chick. The 1982 original’s transition to this edition has not been smoothly accomplished as, along with uncertain spelling (see above) and switches at odd moments between present tense and past, the text starts up on the title page and runs to a final sentence shoehorned onto the last page with the copyright fine print. But the storyline is too spare to be more than a pretext for a parade of daffy dinosaurs anyway.
A bland tale for diaper-clad dinophiles, mildly spiced with visual pleasures and surprises. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: May 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-940842-04-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Museyon
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2015
Young dino fans will enjoy it, though their grown-ups may not.
What sounds did dinosaurs make? We don't really know.
Litton suggests some possibilities while introducing sophisticated vocabulary in a board-book format. Five dinosaurs are featured: Tyrannosaurus rex, Stegosaurus, Pterodactyl, Diplodocus, and Triceratops. For each species there is a brief description that highlights its distinctive features, followed by an invitation to hear and repeat the dinosaur's sound. There is no explanation for why scientists think T. Rex “roared,” Stegosaurus “howled,” Pterodactyl “screeched,” Diplodocus “growled,” or Triceratops “grunted.” The author tries to avoid sexism, carefully referring to two of the creatures as “she,” but those two are also described in stereotypically less-ferocious terms than the male dinos. The touch point on the Pterodactyl is a soft section of wing. Readers are told that Diplodocus “loved splashing in swamps,” and the instruction is to “tickle her tummy to hear her growl,” implying that this giant creature was gentle and friendly. None of this may matter to young paleontologists, who will enjoy finding the tactile section on each creature that triggers the sound. Despite extensive directions in small print, most parents and libraries won't bother to change the battery secured by a tiny hex screw, but while the battery lasts, the book will get lots of play.
Young dino fans will enjoy it, though their grown-ups may not. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-58925-207-3
Page Count: 12
Publisher: Tiger Tales
Review Posted Online: Aug. 4, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
Amiable if slight.
In a text that can be sung to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” a young dinosaur plays with other prehistoric friends and gets ready for bed.
In this companion piece to Twinkle, Twinkle Unicorn (2019), each double-page spread features a friendly, green theropod with rosy cheeks watching pink pterosaurs fly, using a sauropod’s tail as a sliding board, and watching volcanoes explode in the night sky. As the sun sets, the dinosaur yawns and heads back home to two larger dinosaurs, one pink with eyelashes and one blue without, who appear to be mama and papa dinosaur respectively (did color stereotyping based on gender exist 65 million years ago? And why isn’t the protagonist dinosaur mauve?). Waring has arguably created the most benign and affable dinosaurs possible, with their perpetual smiles, rounded horns and teeth, oversized eyes, and brightly colored hides. Weighing in at only a slight 16 pages, the book runs through two modified verses of the classic, and the first scans quite fluidly. The second stanza feels a little forced to make it fit into the bedtime theme: “Twinkle, twinkle dinosaur, / the day is done. / It’s time to snore.”
Amiable if slight. (Board book. 2-4)Pub Date: May 28, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3975-7
Page Count: 16
Publisher: Little Simon/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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