Written and Illustrated by: Mark Pett
Simon and Shuster Books for Young Readers, 2015, Hardcover
Target Audience: Ages 3-8
Genre: Fiction
Theme: Imagination, Friendship
How We Discovered This Book: This is another great find from the new books bin at our library. My daughter was immediately interested based on the cover art.
Summary: Leonard takes a shortcut through the park and finds a dinosaur egg. It hatches, and together they go to many places across the city. But then the dinosaur gets too big for Leonard’s apartment.
What I Liked: The illustrations are rendered in charcoal and then colored on the computer. They are simple but expressive, which gives the look a Calvin and Hobbes-type vibe. The story is fanciful, but not ridiculous – the right words along with regular expressions on the boy’s face make you believe it could really be happening. By the end you believe it has all happened. Or has it?
What Did My Kids Think? They liked going along with Leonard’s imagination, and that the story takes an unexpected turn at the end. They liked the cute illustrations, and the fact that the dinosaur stays cute even as he gets bigger and bigger. Both enjoyed reading this book over and over.
Resources:
Make a paper dinosaur and take him/her places. Take pictures to chronicle your adventures.
Do you go the same way to school, the park, or other favorite place? Try a different route next time, and see what you might discover.
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Hello from Max! Max enjoyed this book too – see what he has to say.
Email subscribers: Please click over to this post on the website to see Max’s complete video.
A Life Spent Reading 