When I Was a Dinosaur

PreS-Gr 1—This engaging yet derivative addition to the preschool dinosaur canon suffers from stilted writing. A boy receives a dinosaur costume for his birthday, dons it, and heads to the park where he scares the other children away. Then his imaginative adventure begins, as full-size dinosaurs appear and lead him to "Dinosaur Land" where he helps the herbivores defeat a group of attacking tyrannosauruses. Back at the park, the other children have returned, also costumed as dinosaurs, and they eventually depart, planning to play again tomorrow. The softly realistic mixed-media illustrations effectively portray the little boy's imaginative adventure, with "Dinosaur Land" rendered in lush, sweeping, detailed full-bleed spreads. While some of the dinosaurs and the boy have a cartoonish feel, the tyrannosauruses are frighteningly realistic. The illustrations move the story along effectively, although one spread awkwardly rotates counterclockwise. The text is the issue here. While it is both minimalistic and accessible, it does not flow well and sounds unpolished. This awkwardness may be due to its translation from the Japanese, but it significantly weakens the book. Additionally, some of the transitions are awkward, and the appearance of the other children at the end is rather jarring, making it unclear if they were part of the boy's adventure or not.