 "Get well, little dinosaur!" | 2009-09-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: AXHPRJ7IHD26P |
When in comes to boo-boo's, scrapes, cuts, or illnesses, little children can often be the worst and the most dramatic patients. The littlest cut is on par with the gargantuan loss of blood produced from a lost limb. Sicknesses are cause enough for the world to stop turning. And sometimes, a kiss from Mommy just doesn't fully fix things. Trouble is, they want to get better, but seem to want to prolong the agony (for everybody!) as long as possible.
This addition to Jane Yolen's & Mark Yeague's series on How Do Dinosaurs Do Things will strike a chord with the most exasperated parent who gets to care for a hurt or sick child. The main protagonists in this case are sick and ailing dinosaurs who model for us all sorts of behaviors exhibited by our children. As with the other books in the series, the first half of the book focuses on the not-so-helpful behaviors. With wonderfully fun and silly rhymes, each turn of the page presents a new scenario, a different sick dinosaur, and a new question of whether or not a dinosaur would really act this way. "What if a dinosaur catches the flu? Does he whimper and whine in between each ATCHOO?" The caring and oh-so-patient parents look on as their dino-children put on the dramatic fireworks. In one picture, a dinosaur wails with the seeming dramatic flair of an operatic actor on stage with one hand over his chest, the other flung out, and head thrown back in agony. A particularly funny scene asks, "Does he scream? Is he mean? Does he run off and hide?" and depicts the dinosaur sitting in a doctor's waiting room, "hiding" behind a magazine while the puzzled doctor appears to be asking the nurse where his next patient ran off to.
The second half of the book answers the first with a resounding "No!" to all the first questions. Instead, dinosaurs follow doctor's orders "'cause doctors know best," take their medicine without complaints, and gets lots of rest. Anyone having been terrified by the velociraptors of Jurassic Park has obviously never seen one wiping his nose gently with a tissue while being tucked into bed my his mommy. These are the behaviors that are desired by our children and the second-half dinosaurs model them beautifully and are even seen to be improving somewhat by the end of the book.
Also included is the name of the dinosaur hidden somewhere in each picture. This is perhaps the best thing the authors could have done with the names because it doesn't make knowing the names a necessity, but at the same time adds a bit of fun for older children in trying to find them. At this point, my four-year old isn't at all interested in their names, but simply calls each one a dinosaur.
As with the other books in the series, the show-stealer is definitely the illustrations by Mark Teague. He captures the terrible "sufferings" of the dinosaurs as well as the caring parents with such humor, silliness and exquisite detail that will make readers both young and old laugh out loud. |
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 "Not as good as the others" | 2009-03-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3CVRYUSE9GNT2 |
| My 3 year old daughter received this for her birthday because she loves "How do Dinosaurs say good night" and "How do Dinosaurs go to school", but she did not love this book. The writing and the story line is simply not as well written as the other "how do dinosaurs..." book. We were disappointed and so was my daughter. |
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 "Great visuals, mediocre writing" | 2008-09-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: A20BCI4Z69AI34 |
| My two-and-half-year-old daughter loves these "How-To" dinosaur books. I bought How Do Dinosaurs Go To School? first, which she was hooked on and triggered me to buy this one, which she equally loves. She can memorize and articulate the 10 dinosaurs names provided in the book, just as she could with the other dinosaur book, which also introduces 10 types of dinosaurs. However, while the illustrations are highly entertaining to a toddler, the language, like that in the other book, is quite lackluster. It would be ideal if the book also shed literary value and were enjoyable to read aloud to a child as well. |
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| "love the series" | 2008-09-20 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2ZWG58UKZ1KQP |
| my son loves this entire series and has been begging for this one! great illustrations and writing! |
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| "Great addition to the series" | 2008-05-20 |
| - Reviewed By ndp79 |
| I love this book in the series. Fortunately I haven't had the opportunity to read it to my son while he is sick! This one is just as good as Food & Goodnight. |
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| "Great" | 2008-02-19 |
| - Reviewed By zqs143jps |
| I love these books. Everyone of the books in the series have met mine and my child's expectations. Of course being a boy he loves the dinosaurs and as I the mom, I love the values, manners and morals they teach. |
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