Customer Reviews

Dinotrux

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The boys in your life (and girls too) will love the characters in this book! This is such an original idea you wonder why it has not been thought of before. Dinosaurs and trucks combined! The artwork is great and we can't wait to see the 3d animated movie that is now in development at Dreamworks!

My 2 year old son is addicted to this book. He knows all the "species" of Dinotrux and wants to read it every night. It is extremely clever and even makes adults smile. My 5 year old daughter likes it too!

This has been the nonstop nightly read for my son and his older sister since we picked it up last month. Cute story, wonderful illustrations, hilarious names for the dinotrux. We often go back to look at one page and talk about the trucks on that page. Volcanoes, lava, cavemen, flattened snakes, bodily fluids, trucks, dinosaurs. . .Heaven for a 3 year old boy!

INSTANT CLASSIC!

I'm a big fan of Chris Gall. I think his previous book, There's Nothing To Do On Mars, is probably among the best children's books ever written. The one before that, Dear Fish, is excellent too. And his first book, America the Beautiful, has very nice illustrations.

After that progression from good to great to phenomenal, I have been eagerly waiting for this next book. But after reading it several times over a few weeks, I'm disappointed.

It's a good book, and my kids do enjoy it. Some of the illustrations are fun. But it just doesn't approach the levels of his previous two books. Here's what I found disappointing:

1) The illustrations. I love the illustrations in all of his previous books. I can look at them over and over, and scrutinize the details, and I never get tired of it. My kids never get tired of them either. But the illustrations in this book just don't grab me much. A few of them are interesting, but none are as interesting as his previous work.

2) The story. Yes it's an interesting concept. But it's not fleshed out very well. And it just doesn't work that well, at least for kids the age of mine (5 and 3). I have to explain over and over, and it never seems to really interest them. Their reaction is more like they find it weird and strange -- and a little boring -- than really interesting and fun. Again, these are kids that LOVE this author's previous books. They also love dinosaurs, and like trucks.


Once it's time to return it to the library, I have no plans to buy it, and I'm pretty sure my kids won't ask for it. So his previous two books, which we do own, will get read many more times while we wait for his next book after this one.

I'm all in favor of an artist exploring new ground. The artistic style of his first three books were all fairly similar, and if he felt the need to branch out, I certainly don't begrudge him that. But whatever he tries next, I hope works better than this.


UPDATE:

It's now been a few months since it went back to the library, and the kids haven't mentioned it. That says it all. Meanwhile, they have asked for the author's previous books for bedtime reading.

Chris Gall is obviously capable of making excellent childrens' books, and I look forward to his next effort after this.

Once in a while a picture book author will mix dinosaurs in with another popular genre. The logic behind this is clear. If dinos sell and trains sell, why not write something like All Aboard the Dinotrain? As a result, dinosaurs have been mixed together with everything from bedtime stories (How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?) to ballet (T. Rex at Swan Lake). One mixed-pair that hasn't really happened before, as far as I know, is trucks and dinosaurs. I can just see various authors pondering the possibilities. Would the dinosaurs drive the trucks? Would the trucks be designed with different dinosaurs painted onto them? But where's the story? I mean the only way dinosaurs could really be combined with trucks would be if they were . . . were . . . were actually physically COMBINED with them! Trust author/illustrator Chris Gall to make that final leap in logic. His Dinotrux strikes a slightly younger chord than his previous picture book outings (Dear Fish and There's Nothing to Do on Mars), but kids and parents of all ages will take pleasure in the sheer amount of thought and creativity the man had to work up to come up with names like Dumploducus or Rollodon.

They were here long ago. When the world was a vast wild place, dinotrux ruled. They are the ancestors of the gentle benign trucks we know today, and their ways were harsh and strange. If a caveman wasn't running for his life from the dangerous (and incredibly fast) Semisaur then he was trying to avoid a Cementosaurus's smelly leavings. It was the world of the Craneosaurus, the Blacktopadon, and the ever terrible Tyrannosaurus Trux. Of course that was before the great flash of light and terrible storm. Dinotrux rusted and sank into the mud, while a few managed to escape southward into warmer climates. Since that time they have domesticated, and the remains of the old Dinotrux are dug up at the oddest of times. Now only one things is certain. Dinotrux are always on the job. "And they never, EVER quit!"

The trux themselves are rather clever. Gall has figured out the logistics between combining the reptilian with the industrial. He has considered such details as how a Craneosaurus or a Garbageadon would eat. And I don't think any adult who sees the two-page spread of brown Deliveradons asleep in a lazy pile won't instantly think of UPS and late deliveries. Gall clearly studied up on both dinos and actual trucks to get the right feel for his mechanical monstrosities.

There's a lot of repetition in the pictures as well. The three primary cavepeople who appear in the past are reimagined as contemporary humans when we see one of the final shots in the book. The endpapers too show some nice differences between now and then. On one page you will see trucks as normal, dull, standard entities, sitting without much flair or show. On the opposite page those trucks appear once again, only now in their newly dinotruxed state. Kids will have quite a bit of fun matching one truck to another and then, presumably, finding the dino-like similarities in trucks in the real world.

I think this might mark the first time I've ever seen a cheeky publication page. Sometimes a book's design will incorporate its serial number in an amusing fashion, but this was the very first time I looked to see what the illustrations were made of only to read, "The text was set in Cafeteria Black, and the display type is hand-lettered. The artwork for this book was created using bearskins and stone knives." Below those words you can see a caveman carving the Little, Brown and Company logo into the side of a boulder. If we can assume that Mr. Gall hasn't changed his style any then it this book could be a mix of engravings, paint, and ink. It's hard to know, though. At the very least the pictures in Dinotrux are filled with movement, action, and shifting perspectives. There's a black, almost dusty fog that lies over the prints, giving this prehistoric world the feeling that it's engulfed in truck-tastic soot and smoke. Believable.

The text is also rhythmic and bouncy. You can't help but like a sentence that says "they shed their teeth and their toenails and their misbehaving ways." Interestingly Gall has chosen to pepper his pictures with exclamations by the routinely fleeing cavepeople. Some of these work better than others, suggesting that they were a last minute additions. For example, while the Caveman saying "Yuck" when trapped in dinotrux muck makes sense, the next page shows two cavepeople cooking a fish with hugely worried looks on their faces. The text below them reads, "Let's have a barbecue!" which is a doggone cheery thing to see under two such worried souls.

Craziest argument you're going to hear when this book is looked at? It's twofold. I suspect that some parents will believe that this book will twist their young children's minds, causing them to think that dinotrux really used to exist millions of years ago. And maybe that'll be true for the odd child here and there. Fun fact: They'll get over it. Seriously. Kids are savvy critters, and a lot of them are going to accept this book for what it is: fun. Besides, do kids read Babar and then assume that all elephants wear spats? I don't think so. The second objection whipping about in the future? I can actually hear someone saying that this book promotes the mistaken belief that dinosaurs and cavemen existed at the same time. It's patently ridiculous since there are no dinosaurs even in the book. Zippo, zero, zilch. I mean, these are probably going to be the same parents who let their kids watch The Flintstones, and isn't THAT just a hotbed of historically accurate fact finding? So if you've objections on either counts here, lay them to rest. I can't acknowledge either.

As strange as it sounds, this book may act as a perfect complement to Jon Scieszka's Trucktown series. In both cases the artists working on the books had to figure out the logistics involved in adding eyeballs and personalities to welded bits of steel and rubber. And Dinotrux is perfect for that kid who wants trucks and dinosaurs just a little more dangerous than usual. It's not the usual dino-laden title out there, a fact that will definitely serve Dinotrux well in the future. Fine, frightening, fun, fantastic fare.

After checking this book out of the library several times we decided it was time to obtain our own copy. Happily, the book has retained it's appeal.

The book tells of creatures that are a cross between dinosaurs and different kinds of big trucks. This, of course, is a winning concept with little boys. Through the first portion of the book we're introduced to various types of Dinotrucks and told of their not-so-nice characteristics. At the end it's explained that over time they've lost their bad characteristics and are now various kinds of trucks that are very helpful to people.

When I saw this book at a book store, I knew my 3 yr old son would love it. It's much cheaper on Amazon so I ordered it. He loves dinosaurs and he loves trucks so you put them together and you have the perfect book for him. It's also been good because we can talk about what are bad manners vs. good manners. It's just a really fun book.

Little boys love dinosaurs. Little boys love trucks. This quirky book combines different types of dinosaurs with different types of trucks, e.g. semis, garbage trucks, firetrucks, earthmovers etc. It is a very charming concept. Each page has a large colorful illustration and a small amount of text. My 3 and 5 year olds were fascinated and wanted to read it over and over for several days. Unusual, given kids' attention span.

Once upon a time millions of years ago the "earth was FIERY and DANGEROUS," except of course if you were a Dinotrux. In that case you were all set. Volcanoes weren't a bother and neither were the cave people. Even the sight of a Dinotrux toe would set them running, even if they had a nice juicy drumstick roasting over the fire. It was an easy time for the Dinos because they "ruled the world!" The Craneosaurus could annoy a pterodactyl in a second by crunching and munching the leaves high up in the trees. AUK! AUK! Down beneath the trees the Dozeratops was always pushing boulders here and there and everyone considered the Dumploducus to be nothing but a litterbug!

The Rollodon "NEVER watches where he's going" and when he's on a roll there are all kinds of flattened creatures for the cave people to eat. YUM! The Gargageadon "ate everything in sight" and cavemen really had to watch out for that Dinotrux. Of course the Digasaurus was not far behind digging up anything he felt like. The Deliveradons, perhaps like the modern U.P.S. men, were caught snoozing when no one was looking. ZZZZZZZZ! There were all kinds of Dinos, but of course the most fearful of all was the Tyrannosaurus Trux. He was a force to be reckoned with, but there was something that would eventually overcome even that fearful creature. Do you know what happened to the Dinotrux? If you don't, you'll just have to read this book.

This was a great book that children will pore for time and time again. The combination of dinosaurs and trucks was ingenious and the vibrant artwork shows the combination meshed very well. I loved some of the combinations and the Firesaurus looked like a combination between a volcano, a fire truck and a dragon (a sure fire winning combo!). This is one trip into the past that boys and girls are going to love making. Chris Gall has created the ultimate time machine for the young dinosaur/truck lover back to a FIERY and DANGEROUS world!

My son loved this book. My niece, not so much. It's obviously written for a boy. That's okay, of course. It's a nice gift for someone with a toddler boy in the house (that's actually how we got it!).

The illustrations are very nice-- what boy doesn't like dinosaurs and trucks? Put them together, and you have a story about a sort of "dino-transformer" that boys will love.

A cute choice for a boy, I think.