From School Library Journal
PreSchool-Grade 2 The adventurous reptiles from
Dinosailors (Harcourt, 2003) are back, this time boarding a train as foreshadowed in the ending of the previous adventure. The stage is set by the endpapers, which depict the dinocrew: the Stegosaurus is the conductor, the T. rex is the porter, etc. Engineer Brachiosaurus is appropriately clad in striped overalls and denim cap. After loading the train, the dinosaurs are ready for action, yet a series of misadventures awaits. Too heavy, they dinopush and later jetty the dinofreight. After happily soaring through a tunnel, they enjoy the roller-coaster dinoride until they have a harrowing incident with a missing bridge, leaving them dinoflying into a lake. The crew returns home for hugs, vowing never to board a train again. The final pages show the creatures looking curiously at a plane…. Though there is perhaps an overabundance of dinowords, children will delight in them. The rollicking, rhyming text is great for reading aloud. Fine's playful, colorful dinosaurs are remarkably expressive and full of child appeal. The large scale of the book and the dynamic, dramatic quality of the pictures make it well suited for storytime sharing. And with such subject matter dinosaurs and trains who could go too far wrong? Although similar to John Steven Gurney's
Dinosaur Train (HarperCollins, 2002), this book will be welcome in many collections.
Robin L. Gibson, Granville Parent Cooperative Preschool, OH Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
K-Gr. 2. The brightly hued, energetic saurian gang that tumbled eagerly atop a steam train at the end of
Dinosailors (2003) find further peril and excitement in this rollicking continuation. It's a slow trip up the mountain, but a wild careen down: "A dark and narrow dinotunnel / Sucks and spits them through its funnel. / Out the shoot [sic] and down the slide, / A roller-coaster dinoride!" Though the outing ends in disaster at a washed-out bridge, young fans--particularly those who have already ridden on John Steven Gurney's
Dinosaur Train (2002)--will happily join Fine's full-size, naturalistically rendered dinosaurs for the ride. And what's next? "We'll
never take another train. . . . / But how about a dino
plane?"
John PetersCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
