T IS FOR TERRIBLE

McCarty uses the soft, rounded forms and muted colors of his Caldecott Honor–winning Hondo and Fabian (2002) to similarly tongue-in-cheek effect. Here, Tyrannosaurus Rex makes a bid for sympathy: didn’t he come from a humble little egg? Didn’t he too have a mother? Can he help it if the ground shakes when he runs, or that he’s just not cut out to be a vegetarian? Children may chortle at the repeated scenes of T. Rex toothily attempting to justify himself to smaller, cowed-looking prey—or maybe not: the humor of the disconnect between the art’s harmonious, gentle look and the true nature of the creatures portrayed may be more apparent to sophisticated sensibilities. (Picture book. 6-8)