Review by Booklist Review
Might may be right, but playing together nicely trumps everything. Young dinosaurs alternate turns on a seesaw, with progressively larger beasts appropriating each end, one after the other. When young Tyrannosaurus is outsized by Brachiosaurus, he vents his frustration and growls menacingly at his playmate. Suddenly, a mighty roar interrupts the tense standoff, and Mother Tyrannosaurus intervenes to restore harmony, making sure all the dinosaur tots play together happily. A line graph provides the relative size of each creature, ranging from the smallish Dimetrodon through the looming Brachiosaurus, and the final page shows how seesaws are simple machines, introducing concepts such as levers, fulcrums, and inclined planes. The whimsical pictures were created on hanji, traditional Korean paper made from mulberry trees, using Korean paints and watercolors. Despite their softly rounded, pudgy cartoon rendering, each dinosaur species is readily identifiable, which will appeal to preschool paleontologists. This simple lesson about sharing uses minimal text, but the message comes through loud and clear.--Kathleen McBroom Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Dinosaurs with skins of subtly graded hues inhabit a misty Mesozoic forest, giving the spreads of this story a mysterious, otherworldly atmosphere. By contrast, its demonstration of comparative weight and balance couldn't be clearer. "Who wants to play with me?" asks a lilac-colored dimetrodon, who teeters on one end of a big log balanced on a rock. An orange dinosaur (a minmi, the dinosaur guide at the back of the book explains) mounts the other end, driving the dimetrodon up into the air. "I'm bigger than you," the minmi says. Drama builds as larger and larger dinosaurs step onto alternate ends of the log, and to underscore the action, the type grows larger, too. Working in hanji (traditional Korean paper) and paint accented with watercolor, Kyung creates scenes in green and silvery gray-that is, until a fire-engine-red Tyrannosaurus rex shows up, and the emotional temperature rises (and the log takes some punishment). Dinosaurs, physical action, playful repetition, and things that grow bigger and bigger will grab the attention of even the wiggliest listeners. Ages 4-8. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-K-Curvilinear young dinosaurs rendered in watercolors one-up one another on a seesawing log. From dimetrodon to brachiosaurus, they progress in size and competitiveness until a baby T. rex behaves terribly and his mother intervenes and insists that they all play nicely together. The seesaw becomes a slide and all ends happily. A spread in the back lists the pronunciation of each species of dinosaur and indicates how long ago they lived. The last page introduces simple machines and how levers and inclined planes work. VERDICT Can there possibly be too many simple stories about dinosaurs for preschoolers? Of course not! This one will make a big hit at storytime.-Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY © Copyright 2018. 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
A fallen tree balanced atop a boulder makes a perfect prehistoric seesaw in Kyungs picture-book mash-up of dinosaurs, playtime, and simple machines. Who wants to play with me? asks a Dimetrodon perched on the seesaw. A Minmi steps onto the opposite end, lifting the Dimetrodon into the air. Im bigger than you, the Minmi says with a smug grin. But its a short-lived victory. A page-turn reveals an even larger dinosaur (a Therizinosaurus), who quickly triumphs. Over the next four spreads, this patternnewcomer outweighs previous winnerrepeats, as does the boastful refrain, but with two clever tweaks: Kyungs text increases in size and changes color to match each new victor. Rendered with paints, watercolors, and Korean paper called hanji, Kyungs illustrations are initially muted in tone. Then a fiery-red T. rex appears, shaking up the color palette and the narrative when it loses its temper and breaks the seesaw. But the story doesnt end there. Kyung plays with sizeand basic physicsone more time, with the surprise arrival of the biggest dinosaur yet: the T. rexs mother. Play soon resumescooperatively, this timeon a slide built with (ta-da!) the broken seesaw parts. Its a solution as elegant asa simple machine. A dinosaur line-up identifies species, name pronunciations, relative sizes, and time periods. Final diagrams explain seesaws (levers) and slides (inclined planes). tanya d. auger (c) Copyright 2018. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Dinosaurs on the playground (and readers who might wish to join them) get schooled both in physics and in the pleasures of noncompetitive play. Taking alternate ends of a log balanced on a round rock, a succession of ever larger dinos asserts supremacy over the playmate on the opposite end, smugly crowing "I'm bigger than you." But the tantrum a bright red T. Rex throws after being outweighed by a brachiosaur brings a change of perspective in the form of a much-larger T. Rex: "And I'm your mother!" With parental help, the log is pushed so that only one end is elevated, thus converting it to a slide that puts all of the dinosaurs on the same footing. Using brushwork that evokes traditional East Asian ink drawings (according to the production note she uses Korean paper and paints), Kyung creates minimally detailed prehistoric scenes featuring a cast of slightly anthropomorphic but recognizable dinosaurs. They are all identified, along with size gradations ranging from "Big" through "Massive" and "Immense" to "Biggest," in a closing gallery, which is followed by diagrams that explain, with a dollop of wry humor, the differences between a seesaw ("lever") and a slide ("inclined plane").A whimsical lesson in Mesozoic good manners, with an added treat for young STEM-winders. (Picture book. 5-7) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
