"A guide to better behavior -- at home, on the playground, in class, and in the library." -- Kirkus Reviews
Praise for How Do Dinosaurs Choose Their Pets?:
"Yolen's rhymes are jaunty, and, as always, Teague has a field day. His illustrations highlight the unbridled joy these vibrantly colored, lesser-known species of dinos... have playing with a variety of creatures." -- Kirkus Reviews
Praise for How Do Dinosaurs Stay Friends?:
"The 10th dinosaur outing for Yolen and Teague playfully addresses the minefield of school friendships, as always cleverly subbing in outsized dinosaur antics for the gigantic feelings in every little kid's body... who can resist when dinosaur buddies share a sincere, well-earned hug?" -- Kirkus Reviews
Praise for How Do Dinosaurs Stay Safe?:
"This beloved series hit the ground running, and it's still going strong." -- Booklist
"As in previous outings, Teague's artwork steals the show, the realism of the scenes and human figures juxtaposed with the giant, though childish, dinos. Labels in the illustrations and endpapers will help dino mavens identify their favorites. Don'ts and Do's in a familiar formula go down easily for fans and will provide a good conversation starter for parents." -- Kirkus Reviews
2020-08-18
A guide to better behavior—at home, on the playground, in class, and in the library.
Serving as a sort of overview for the series’ 12 previous exercises in behavior modeling, this latest outing opens with a set of badly behaving dinos, identified in an endpaper key and also inconspicuously in situ. Per series formula, these are paired to leading questions like “Does she spit out her broccoli onto the floor? / Does he shout ‘I hate meat loaf!’ while slamming the door?” (Choruses of “NO!” from young audiences are welcome.) Midway through, the tone changes (“No, dinosaurs don’t”), and good examples follow to the tune of positive declarative sentences: “They wipe up the tables and vacuum the floors. / They share all the books and they never slam doors,” etc. Teague’s customary, humongous prehistoric crew, all depicted in exact detail and with wildly flashy coloration, fill both their spreads and their human-scale scenes as their human parents—no same-sex couples but some are racially mixed, and in one the man’s the cook—join a similarly diverse set of sibs and other children in either disapprobation or approving smiles. All in all, it’s a well-tested mix of oblique and prescriptive approaches to proper behavior as well as a lighthearted way to play up the use of “please,” “thank you,” and even “I’ll help when you’re hurt.”
Formulaic but not stale…even if it does mine previous topical material rather than expand it. (Picture book. 6-8)
