Spotting a passing dinosaur from his bedroom window one night, young Bobby follows it to a square surrounded by tall, dark office buildings where a host of dinos has gathered for a wild rumpus. Jobling, creative director of PBS’s “Bob the Builder,” creates big, blocky cartoons featuring simplified but recognizable dinosaurs, each a single, bright color, sporting with a pajama-clad lad until he drifts off and is tenderly borne back to bed. Emmett (Bringing Down the Moon, 2001, etc.) himself drifts between prose and verse in telling the tale, which makes for abrupt, awkward changes in rhythm. He cites Where the Wild Things Are as his inspiration, but when it comes to emotional or psychological depth, he misses the boat there too. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-307-41179-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Golden Books/Random
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2002
Categories: CHILDREN'S DINOSAURS & PREHISTORIC CREATURES
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A little dinosaur navigates friendships and new foods in this early reader.
In “Playtime,” the first of this volume’s two stories, Mama tells Iggy that he’s to have a play date with Murka Macrosaur. Iggy’s afraid that she’ll be into girly things like princesses, but instead the two try a variety of different outdoor activities before settling on a ring toss that utilizes Triceratops Murka’s pointy nose. “Mealtime” sees Iggy eyeing a dinner of ferns with great suspicion. He’d much rather eat flowers, but even after Papa says he can’t have them until he tries his ferns, it takes Grandpa’s subtle intervention to convince the young dino to attempt something new. An opening key ranks the text as Level 2, defined as “Reading With Help.” With such words as Iguanodon, tagalong, Macrosaur, and triceratops on the first nine pages alone, that help will be sorely needed, especially for young readers who don’t already know their dinosaur names. Elegant writing does not mitigate this problem (“But Murka gets stuck in somersaults, the same as all triceratops”). Meanwhile, cumbersome, inexpressive art does little to distract from the text, and the absence of outlines around the uniformly green dinos makes compositions where bodies overlap particularly confusing. Finally, this may be set in the Cretaceous, but what really feels ancient are elements like an apron-wearing mom, a father as disciplinarian, and a grandfather who smokes a pipe. Companion title Bath Time & Bedtime publishes simultaneously.
Iguano-don’t bother. (Early reader. 5-7)Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8075-3642-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: July 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
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BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Expanding on the principle that there’s “a dino for every kid,” Rennert introduces a handful of dinosaurs, then offers useful general advice for new owners about care, feeding and elementary training. Using just as broad a brush for the art, Brown offers bright, splotchy monoprint scenes of smiling young folk turning their equally happy-looking prehistoric pets into a water slide or roller coaster, taking them to a beach and ballgame or just generally frolicking about. Under the descriptive label “Spiny,” the Spinosaurus receives this gloss: “Although she’s the perfect buddy all year round, [she] is a great warm-weather dino.” The illustration depicts a smiling dino, purple flowers dotting its tan hide, while a trio of kids enjoys the shade of its sail at the beach. From dino descriptions to basic commands—“STAY (Ha!)”—to exercising your dino and taking it to school, it’s a cheery descendant of Bernard Most’s classic If the Dinosaurs Came Back (1978), done in brighter colors and with a more contemporary look. (Picture book. 5-7)
Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-375-83679-4
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2009
Categories: CHILDREN'S DINOSAURS & PREHISTORIC CREATURES
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