Dex T-Rex: The Mischievous Little Dinosaur by Katya Bowser
My rating: 3/5 cats
oh, look, i read another picture book. stop frowning at me! i’ll be a grown up LATER. i didn’t even really mean to request it, i just saw that widdle dinosaur on the cover and said “awww,” and before i knew it, my finger was on that “request” button without my even being aware of it! honest! but come on, doesn’t this story sound like one i should be reading?
Dex is a mischievous little dinosaur who runs around creating havoc. He kicks! He smashes! He shreds! Until he realizes that his rambunctious actions have devastating effects to the animals and the forest. He resolves to make things right, and he sets out to fix everything he has demolished.
i mean, except for the lesson-learning part. that part is no fun at all, but as for the kicking and smashing and shredding—those are all wonderfully diverting activities that should be included in every person’s day! and that goes double for dinosaurs! and ignore that there are two typos in the description; spelling is for chumps!
but, yeah—this is one of those books that doesn’t really transcend its intended age-group. it’s probably great to read aloud to a little kid, but there’s none of that subtextual humor just for adults that some of my favorite picture books have. this one is just what it claims to be, and it’s cute and it’s fun and it teaches that very important lesson about actions having consequences and that things that seem fun at the time can also be quite damaging to others.
the only problem i have, once i mope a little about being too old for this book, is that the rhyme scheme gets a little awkward at times, which matters not because i am the poetry police, but because it might cause a stumbling block in its use as a read-aloud.
Dex T-Rex loved to play
On beautiful days just like today.
A fun game to play was the Dinosaur game.
After all, he is a dinosaur. As stated in his name.
He started with the grass and gave it a big kick,
And broke in half a poor little stick.
i don’t want to quote any more because it is such a short book, but you see what i am getting at. the rhyme’s a little jaggedy. so readers-aloud of this book might want to do a test run first, to avoid any missteps, because you do NOT want to get heckled by a bunch of four-year-olds. or even one. that is worse than the apollo.
so: cute book, cute dinosaur:
cute endpapers:
but, like strawberry quik, it’s just one more thing i am too old to love unconditionally.
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