This book’s squishy cover is not the only padded thing here.
Superheroes + dinosaurs = two great tastes that don’t necessarily go together.
It’s career day at Rawr’s school, and the class' sole dino has come with aspirations on full display as a superhero. Rawr explains a superhero’s attributes, including strength, speed, and flight (no mention is made of helping others). Later, when Rawr spots a broken fire hydrant and a treed kitten, it’s “SUPER RAWR to the rescue!” That night Rawr speculates that maybe it would be fun to be an astronaut instead, so dreams of “SPACE RAWR to the rescue!” close the book (though Rawr’s still dressed like a superhero, with nary a spacesuit in sight). It’s difficult identifying what precisely Doodler is trying to say here about heroes. Rawr is already a gigantic dinosaur, so adding a caped-crusader element is gilding the lily. Is the book trying to say that you can be heroic in your everyday life? Maybe so, but swallowing large amounts of water from fire hydrants and lifting kittens from trees falls squarely into the “dinosaur” rather than “everyday hero” slot. The text only adds to the confusion. Rawr explains what a superhero can do, including “A superhero can hold the world in one hand” (a classroom globe). Never mind that this is more a godlike trait than a superpower.
This book’s squishy cover is not the only padded thing here. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: June 28, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-545-79969-0
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2016
Still, this young boy’s imagination is a powerful force for helping him deal with life, something that should be true for...
Oliver, of first-day-of-school alligator fame, is back, imagining adventures and still struggling to find balance between introversion and extroversion.
“When Oliver found his egg…” on the playground, mint-green backgrounds signifying Oliver’s flight into fancy slowly grow larger until they take up entire spreads; Oliver’s creature, white and dinosaurlike with orange polka dots, grows larger with them. Their adventures include sharing treats, sailing the seas and going into outer space. A classmate’s yell brings him back to reality, where readers see him sitting on top of a rock. Even considering Schmid’s scribbly style, readers can almost see the wheels turning in his head as he ponders the girl and whether or not to give up his solitary play. “But when Oliver found his rock… // Oliver imagined many adventures // with all his friends!” This last is on a double gatefold that opens to show the children enjoying the creature’s slippery curves. A final wordless spread depicts all the children sitting on rocks, expressions gleeful, wondering, waiting, hopeful. The illustrations, done in pastel pencil and digital color, again make masterful use of white space and page turns, although this tale is not nearly as funny or tongue-in-cheek as Oliver and His Alligator (2013), nor is its message as clear and immediately accessible to children.
Still, this young boy’s imagination is a powerful force for helping him deal with life, something that should be true for all children but sadly isn’t. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: July 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4231-7573-5
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2014
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat.
Dinos that love to move and groove get children counting from one to 10—and perhaps moving to the beat.
Beginning with a solo bop by a female dino (she has eyelashes, doncha know), the dinosaur dance party begins. Each turn of the page adds another dino and a change in the dance genre: waltz, country line dancing, disco, limbo, square dancing, hip-hop, and swing. As the party would be incomplete without the moonwalk, the T. Rex does the honors…and once they are beyond their initial panic at his appearance, the onlookers cheer wildly. The repeated refrain on each spread allows for audience participation, though it doesn’t easily trip off the tongue: “They hear a swish. / What’s this? / One more? / One more dino on the floor.” Some of the prehistoric beasts are easily identifiable—pterodactyl, ankylosaurus, triceratops—but others will be known only to the dino-obsessed; none are identified, other than T-Rex. Packed spreads filled with psychedelically colored dinos sporting blocks of color, stripes, or polka dots (and infectious looks of joy) make identification even more difficult, to say nothing of counting them. Indeed, this fails as a counting primer: there are extra animals (and sometimes a grumpy T-Rex) in the backgrounds, and the next dino to join the party pokes its head into the frame on the page before. Besides all that, most kids won’t get the dance references.
It’s a bit hard to dance, or count, to this beat. (Picture book. 3-5)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8075-1598-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Whitman
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016
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