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My Dinosaur.
Mark Alan Weatherby.
Subject Headings:
Preschool - grade 2 / Ages 4 - 7.
**** /4
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excerpt:
My dinosaur lifts me to my window. He waits until I am under the covers. Then, quiet as a mouse, he heads for home. At breakfast, I yawn. How did you get leaves in your hair? my mother asks me. I played with my dinosaur last night, I tell her. That's nice, she says. I look outside the window but my great, old friend is gone. He will come back again when the moon is full, I know... My dinosaur always does.My Dinosaur is a gentle bedtime fantasy of a little girl who, when the moon is full, goes adventuring with a huge, benevolent dinosaur. With the story being told in the first person, readers experience a child-eye view of a special friend so enormous that only parts of him are visible in most double-page spreads. The sweet rosy-cheeked girl is shown holding onto his tail for a jubilant dip in the water or standing on his upturned nose to touch the stars, while a paternal and protective dinosaur eye watches. The dreamy illustrations, that Weatherby states are rendered in "acrylics, metallic paints...and fairy dust," are at variance with the matter-of-fact text recounted by the child as if explaining an actual event. This stylistic combination lends verisimilitude to the fantasy and, coupled with the disbelief of her mother the next morning and the reality of leaves in her hair, gives children a delicious sense of sharing a secret. The parental reaction and leftover evidence have also been used successfully by Marie-Louise Gay in Rainy Day Magic and Dorothy Joan Harris in Dinosaurs in the Park. Children will also undoubtedly notice the stuffed dinosaur in the girl's bedroom and her dinosaur wallpaper, details which serve to reinforce the fantasy rather than explain or diminish it. Non-threatening and sweetly satisfying, this bedtime adventure will be loved by the Barney set.
Highly recommended.
Alison Mews is Coordinator of the Centre for Instructional Services, Faculty of Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Nfld.
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © 1997 the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other reproduction is prohibited without permission.
Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - September 19, 1997.
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