How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends?


Very carefully? 

THREE PROS
*Author Jane Yolen should be commended for tackling under-the-radar issues that are important to raising superstar children (in the sense that most books avoid the topics they cover)  
*Mark Teague somehow conveys the proper expressions in every dinosaur's face, despite being hamstrung by their naturally tiny eyes
*Nice touch adding the species in tiny letters below each beast

THREE CONS 
*While the message is super important, the re-readability is equivalent to taking multiple trips to a second-rate natural history museum 
*There's a whole lot of orange and green going on in here -- perhaps some other colors would have spruced it up a bit 
*Doesn't show all of the common ways a child could misbehave around his or her peers

ONE DAD'S OPINION
No matter how amazing your son or daughter is, there will be times where you are horrified by their behavior around other kids.  Face it, the scary dinosaur inside of a little tyke can't remain dormant forever.  It might arise in the form of
 a temper tantrum, or unbridled selfishness, or even unprovoked violence, but whatever the case may be, there is a primacy instinct pre-programmed into each and every toddler that will never go extinct.  Still, there are ways to limit the playground carnage.  And I think this book might be one of them.  Consider it your very own Darwinian experiment.  HDDPWTF? is by no means a keeper, but could be a very useful Borrow whenever those fangs and claws start to come out...    

Buy / BORROW / Donate / Destroy



1 comment:

Jessica Leader said...

Good point! I think it's better to admit what the bad behavior is and laugh about it together--and maybe, in the playground, it will work if you say, "Is that how the dinosaur would play with his friends?" I also agree that it's a 'borrow'--we own it, but I'm rarely in the mood to read it, and I think it does have to do with the blah color palette.