Review by Booklist Review
This eighth entry (counting the two board books) in the Yolen/Teague How Do Dinosaurs series features a cast of 10 brightly colored dinosaurs that manage to dominate the double-page spreads without overwhelming them. Questions arise when the dinos are put in common school-day situations. Would dinosaurs walk to school or carpool? Would they stomp and make a fuss on the bus? Would they roughhouse and punch and disrupt the class by yelling or fidgeting with their tails in the air? Of course not. Before they leap out the door at the end of the school day, readers will realize that these dinosaurs are helpful, tidy, and protective, "growling at the bullies till the bullying ends." Yolen's short, rhyming text and Teague's irresistible, cavorting dinosaurs perfectly convey how dinosaurs could behave in school, large and powerful though they may be. Fans of the other titles in the series will welcome this new lesson on how to behave properly yet manage to remain a true dinosaur. --Randall Enos Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The latest from Jane Yolen and Mark Teague, How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? initially has a band of dinos attracting many a stern stare from teachers. A centrosaurus interrupts show-and-tell to brandish his stuffed monkey and a monolophosaurus "roar[s] out of turn," but soon the creatures-and young readers-understand proper behavior before, during and after school. (Scholastic/Blue Sky, $16.99 40p ages 3-5 ISBN 9780-439-02081-7; July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-This animated version of Jane Yolen's book (Blue Sky Press, 2007) is a perfect way to start the school year. Viewers, especially dinophiles, will delight as the remiss school children turn into lumbering dinosaurs, committing all sorts of infractions during the school day. Being late for the school bus, roughhousing in the schoolyard, running in the halls, disrupting class, calling out of turn, pushing, and teasing are among the misbehaviors featured in this humorously didactic story. Yolen's rhyming text and Mark Teague's irresistible brightly-colored dinosaurs are accompanied with lively music; sound effects that include grunts, groans, and gasps; and a screen that shakes violently up and down when little dinosaurs run or jump. Narrated by the author, the rhyming questions are finally answered with a firm, "No.A dinosaur carefully raises his hand. He helps out his classmates with projects they've planned," and other admirable actions. The spread, "At recess he plays with a number of friends, and growls at the bullies till bullying ends," comes alive on the screen as a flying reptile catches a ball midair and then swoops over to snatch a startled bully and return him to the classroom. During the credits, good little dinosaurs raise their hands, work on their writing, water the plants, and play nicely at school. An added bonus is an interview with the author, who explains how she came to write the dinosaur series and communicates her love of reading and writing. Clips from the other dinosaur videos and childhood photos are interspersed. Students can write their own classroom rules after viewing.-Barbara Auerbach, P.S. 217, Brooklyn, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
(Preschool, Primary) Another winning entry in the series that demonstrates to the preschool and kindergarten set how not to act, via the dreadful behavior of enormous, colorful, and completely incongruous dinos. Here, the outsize beasts head for school (the Centrosaurus carpools, sort of; the Ceratosaurus takes the bus). The narrator's tone is the same as before, calm and considered but definitely not having any of it. ""Does he growl / during chalk talks, / or roar out of turn? / Does he make it too hard / for the others to learn?"" No, of course not, and the book closes with a quick demonstration of proper school behavior: ""A dinosaur carefully / raises his hand. / He helps out his classmates / with projects / they've planned."" In the end, as always, the reformed pupils receive the praise they now deserve. ""Good work! / Good work, little dinosaur!"" Teague's acrylic illustrations play up both the sheer bulk of the dinos and the outrageousness of their behavior in exaggerated tableaux that put humor first and message second. See the Stygimoloch blithely distracting the class with a little song-and-dance, accompanied by a toy drum and tiny xylophone. And...what exactly was the offending noise during circle time? That's one sheepish-looking Herrerasaurus. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Off to school with our prehistoric pals from the popular How Do Dinosaurs . . .? series, in which familiar scenes are made riotous by the scale-skewing enormity of elementary school-student dinos. As silvasaurus rushes out the door, his human mom proffers a teeny-tiny (but life-sized to Homo sapiens) brown-bag lunch and thermos. Centrosaurus can't fit in the carpool vehicle (license plate DINOCAR), so he rides on the roof. And when Herrerasaurus loses his tooth in class, he can't help but let out a celebratory yell, and all his similarly gap-toothed schoolmates share his excitement. Once again, what readers can't see in Teague's positively pop-off-the-page paintings (tails and toes that are just too long to fit, for example) is just as important as what they can. Perfect partners for Yolen's easy rhymes, they extend the text with those oh-so-appreciated labels, plenty of wit and a well-placed wink or two. The standard-sized schoolyard and show-and-tell provide plenty of opportunities for giant lizards to be acrobatic, misbehave and generally cause a ruckus, but each of these dinosaurs earns top marks and works well with others. (Picture book. 2-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
