Review by Booklist Review
On a rainy day, a classroom's 12 students pass the time by telling a progressive story about imaginary adventures with a dinosaur. Jimmy begins the story on a Saturday, when all of a sudden during breakfast, a tyrannosaurus came crashing through the window. Each of Jimmy's multicultural classmates continues the plot with a simple and short addendum. Their ideas range from the silliness of a dinosaur on a seesaw to straightforward sentences that just move things along: I was on a swing . . . and then I jumped off and ran. Most of the interest is generated by the ink, gouache, and watercolor illustrations, which provide details of the town's destruction described in the story after the T. rex gets loose. Stronger in concept than in execution, this offering nevertheless ends on a winning note with a final visual scene in which the kids cleverly hide the dinosaur from the police, who are hot on their trail. Teachers may want to use this to initiate some collaborative, rainy-day storytelling in their own classrooms.--Medlar, Andrew Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
K-Gr 1-On a rainy day, 12 children sit in a circle in their classroom to make up a story. Jimmy begins by telling how a tyrannosaurus crashed through the window of his house while he was eating breakfast Saturday morning. On successive spreads, each child adds to the story with a sentence or two that sends the hapless dinosaur on a chaotic chase onto a bus, through a playground, onto some amusement-park rides, and eventually coming to a stop in a topiary garden where the children try to hide him from the cops. Schindler does his best to add some excitement to the stilted narrative by drawing the tyrannosaurus as a huge, mean-looking beast thrust into absurd situations surrounded by an increasing mob of kids. Although the story could have some merit as an example of a familiar type of storytelling game, the adventure itself is rather pointless and the ending is too abrupt. This picture book does not live up to its promising title.-Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT (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
On a rainy day at school, Jimmy starts a story: during breakfast, a tyrannosaurus crashed through a window of his house. Then Ava adds to the story, as do ten other children. By tale's end, there's a citywide search for the trouble-making T. rex. Ink, gouache, and watercolor illustrations ramp up the excitement, adding detail, humor, and a surprise ending to this collaborative "and then what happens?" story. (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
A rainy day at school turns a dozen restless children into master storytellers. Students stare out the window at the falling rain in dismay, until the teacher suggests a game. Next thing you know, the students are sitting in a circle, crisscross-applesauce, and Jimmy begins an exciting story that begins with a Tyrannosaurus rex disrupting Saturday morning by crashing through the window. Ava picks up the thread, having the hungry dinosaur gobble up the family's breakfast. And so around the circle it goes, to Susan and Roberto and Rusty and the rest. Jason ends it with a citywide search for the creature on the loose (and there's a rib-tickling surprise on the final page). Schindler's ink, gouache and watercolor illustrations are smile-inducing, extending the simple story visually. As the story continues, spread by spread, the next teller appears in a wavy-outlined inset on the bottom right, while the action described plays out across the spread, with lots of sharp teeth and debris to fill the scene. Listeners might be induced to create their own collective yarns after seeing this one. (Picture book. 4-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
