A bit of dino drollery for the diaper-clad.
Daily farm chores are anything but routine when the livestock runs to stegosaurs and the odd T. Rex.
Not that you’d be able to tell that last bit from the blandly generic narrative: “It’s hard work being a farmer. / You have to wake very early every morning, and you must make sure you have a nice, big breakfast before your day begins.” Presaging what’s to come, though, that “breakfast” is a soft-boiled egg the size of a small watermelon. As the overalls-clad farmer (more a rancher it would seem) sets about carrying hay and mucking out a mountain of malodorous, brown “mess,” each seemingly typical task is witnessed by flocks of smiling dinos (or, in the garden scene, carnivorous-looking flora). Throughout, the farmer looks dismayed in Preston-Gannon’s cut-paper collages, and serving T. Rex an oversized steak isn’t the only moment he seems one step away from being a goner. In the end, though, it’s all really a sweet, rural idyll that ends with the farmer and his prehistoric charges crowded into his moonlit bedroom in a collective snooze.
A bit of dino drollery for the diaper-clad. (Picture book. 2-4)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4549-1132-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Sterling
Review Posted Online: July 28, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2014
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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