Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In this humorous how-to guide, Baker (Old MacDonald Had a Dragon) takes readers through a day of caring for one enormous pet. T. rex facts supplement each care step, from walking briskly in the morning ("a T-Rex can cover fifteen feet in a single step") to playing sports (its "twenty-foot-long tail" makes a keen ball-propeller) and brushing and flossing its "nine-inch teeth." Throughout, the narrator offers gentle cautions, as when a boy tries to teach his seven-ton pet to roll over and ends up with a T-wrecked fence. Ink-and-watercolor illustrations by Coverly (Night of the Living Shadows) playfully depict excited kids and their less-than-thrilled adult counterparts alongside the adorably enormous dinosaur, and text in speech bubbles ("No eating off the floor!" "No eating THE floor!") adds to the comic effect. Most important of all, the narrator reminds readers, "Even when mistakes are made, always treat your T-Rex with kindness." A list of additional T. rex facts concludes. Ages 4-8. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
"When you take good care of your T-Rex, your T-Rex will take good care of you."Elaborating on a notion that has been popular since Bernard Most's If the Dinosaurs Came Back (1978), Baker offers general guidance on how to keep a dino-pet (or many other sorts) fed, clean, and well-behaved. He mixes this with observations on how a huge, toothy theropod can be an awesome teammate in various sports and drools enough to create a terrific water slide, but it is definitely a messy eater (Coverly displays a fine gift for depicting goo and slop in showing what it does to a stack of pancakes and sausage pizzas) and, considering those short arms, maybe not so good at getting a kite out of a tree. In loosely drawn cartoon scenes the illustrator tucks an inconspicuously diverse cast of small human figuresthe children excited, the grown-ups mildly dismayedaround a humongous green Tyrannosaurus rex that happily trashes a suburban neighborhood before it's time to brush, floss, climb into dino-jammies, hear a bedtime story, and snuggle down into bed to a sweet lullaby from its blond, light-skinned young caretaker. Dino-dumps aren't the only topic left unaddressed, as this lively riff on a popular trope focuses more on the pleasures of having an outsized pet than its challenges.A playful if incomplete twist on an ever popular theme. (additional facts) (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
