Review by Booklist Review
Ages 3-6. A barber pole-striped swing set dwarfed by a hefty dinosaur in a suburban backyard propels a little boy's fantasy into motion.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
About midway into this story, what has appeared to be a young boy's wishful thinking becomes a smooth piece of nonfiction, charmingly packed with facts by Hennessy. The narrator tells how the dinosaur hatched, how large it grew and how much it weighed, in scenes that are part of his backyard. But soon the backgrounds change, and the dinosaur becomes part of the past, playing with the other species now extinct, on land that only millions of years later would become this child's neighborhood. Davis, illustrator of When Daddy Comes Home and Waiting for Mom, adds an appealing number of odd perspectives in what is becoming her characteristic souped-up pastels: a dinosaur foot next to a sandbox; a dinosaur jumping into the air, much larger than the house behind it; the boy and his sister, with a bushel- and wagonfull of lima beans, hoping for the dinosaur's return. Ages 3-8. (March) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A channing, enormous, gentle, smiling, vegetable-eating, green dinosaur waltzes through a little boy's backyard--and memories. Soft watercolors in which blue and green predominate enhance the dreamlike story of the dinosaur who hatched in the backyard and grew to the size of the family car. Though he soon towered over house and school bus and was so heavy that ""he would have made my whole neighborhood shake tike pudding if he jumped,"" he looks as soft as plush and light as a balloon. He plays with other dinosaurs, giving the illustrator a chance to show a fierce and toothy Tyrannosaurus, as well as translating the dinosaur back to his own time. He's been gone ""a very long time,"" the little boy concludes--but he and his sister are saving their lima beans in case he comes back. An appealing combination of fantasy and reality for the many dinosaur fans. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
