They’re not extinct, after all—they’ve just been on an interstellar cruise for a few million years. And now they’re back, loaded down with tourist snapshots and dirty laundry, eager to slip back into their suburban routines. A purple brachiosaurus finds herself stymied by the Great Wall of China, which has interposed itself between her and her accustomed toilet facility; a stegosaurus visits the post office looking for a package ordered millions of years ago; T. Rex arrives home to his cave to find his pet fossilized. Readers of the popular Jane Yolen/Mark Teague How Do Dinosaurs... titles are in for a severe case of déjà vu, as Kulka’s huge, clothed dinos look an awful lot like Teague’s, and the illustrations are likewise all about how silly they look in human-sized settings. The author’s versification skills are far less evolved than Yolen’s, however—“They rode on Venusian coasters, / played on alien shores, / indulged in the lavish buffets, / and took all the scenic tours”—and this homage is likely to be a roaring disappointment to series fans. (Picture book. 6-8)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7613-5212-9
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Carolrhoda
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2010
Sturdy split pages allow readers to create their own inventive combinations from among a handful of prehistoric critters. Hard on the heels of Flip-O-Saurus (2010) drops this companion gallery, printed on durable boards and offering opportunities to mix and match body thirds of eight prehistoric mammals, plus a fish and a bird, to create such portmanteau creatures as a “Gas-Lo-Therium,” or a “Mega-Tor-Don.” The “Mam-Nyc-Nia” places the head of a mammoth next to the wings and torso of an Icaronycteris (prehistoric bat) and the hind legs of a Macrauchenia (a llamalike creature with a short trunk), to amusing effect. Drehsen adds first-person captions on the versos, which will also mix and match to produce chuckles: “Do you like my nose? It’s actually a short trunk…” “I may remind you of an ostrich, because my wings aren’t built for flying…” “My tail looks like a dolphin’s.” With but ten layers to flip, young paleontologists will run through most of the permutations in just a few minutes, but Ball’s precisely detailed ink-and-watercolor portraits of each animal formally posed against plain cream colored backdrops may provide a slightly more enduring draw. A silhouette key on the front pastedown includes a pronunciation guide and indicates scale. Overall, a pleasing complement to more substantive treatments. (Novelty nonfiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7892-1099-9
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Abbeville Kids
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
Eye candy and intellectual nourishment alike for newly independent readers.
A classic informational early reader gets a substantial, long-overdue update.
Kirkus criticized the 1985 edition for conveying outdated and misleading information—chivalrously leaving the stodgy colored-pencil illustrations unmentioned. All of that has been addressed here. Revised by the late Milton’s brother Kent, the text highlights or at least names over a dozen dinos, from the diminutive Citipati to the humongous Argentinosaurus, “as big as a house, longer than three buses, and as heavy as thirteen elephants!” Prehistoric contemporaries that were not dinosaurs also get nods, as do modern paleontology, the great extinction and the continued survival of birds: “So the dinosaur days go on.” Tempesta’s cover painting of a brightly patterned Triceratops being attacked by a T. Rex with a feathery spinal fringe opens a suite of equally dramatic group and single portraits. They feature mottled monsters viewed from low angles to accentuate their massiveness and reflect current thinking about feathers and coloration.
Eye candy and intellectual nourishment alike for newly independent readers. (Informational early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: July 22, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-37923-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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