Tuesday, April 6, 2021

One-osaurus, Two-osaurus by Kim Norman, illustrated by Pierre Collet-Derby


 Kim Norman is back with a new picture book and it's just right for toddlers!

The riotous rhyming begins with a glimpse through a window of a messy room, full of toy dinosaurs and number blocks. The action then jumps to a spare landscape with hints of the prehistoric and a cheerfully colorful array of dinosaurs. They wear ties, glasses, and hats and are shown lounging, running, and dancing around their numbers.

"One-osaurus, two-osaurus.../three-osaurus, four.../five-osaurus, six-osaurus, seven-osaurus.../ROAR!"

When the dinosaurs have counted up to nine, something scary, and big starts tracking them... "It's ten-osaurus rex!" But the tenth dinosaur isn't so scary after all - they're just playing hide-and-seek. The dinosaurs are found and it's time for a new game, as decided by the tiny ten-osaur.

The art is blocky and has a collage, print-style look, although it was created digitally. Colorful dinosaurs bounce across the pages, with bold, black letters floating across the sky or sitting firmly on the landscape. The backgrounds darken from a white overlay to dark blue as they wait for the dreaded ten-osaurus and they and their numbers tumble across the pages as they count down to hide.

For dinosaur-loving toddlers, this is a perfect storytime read-aloud. The rhythm bounces along and they the art is bold and easily seen from a distance. Use this in dinosaur or counting storytimes or enjoy multiple reads with the small child of your choice.

Verdict: A must-have for any library collection that serves toddlers; practice reading to make sure you get the swinging rhythm down smoothly and be ready to encourage the kids to yell out the numbers and that final roar! Recommended.

ISBN: 9781536201796; Published March 2021 by Candlewick; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library

1 comment:

Roberta Gibson said...

Oh, this sounds delightful. I will definitely use it.