Comments for Tommysaurus Rex

Tommysaurus Rex: 05/18/14

Tommysaurus Rex by Doug TenNapel reads like a graphic novel homage to Maggie and the Pirate by Ezra Jack Keats. Except now instead of a cricket and a girl, it's a t-rex and a boy.

But the bully's still there wanting above all to get in the way of the special friendship between a child and his or her pet. And as always, it's the pet that gets hurt.

I have very mixed feelings about this book (as I do about Maggie and the Pirate. I'm not a fan of the death of a pet plot especially in the mixture of learning how to stand up to bullies. Sure this pet is a rather magical one, being a long extinct creature brought to life from a cave (a veritable dinosaur resurrection) but his death is still troubling. I suppose it would have been wrong for Tommysaurus to have eaten his persecutor, but it would have been extremely satisfying.

To make matters worse, Tommysaurus isn't the only pet to die. That eye for an eye or pet for a pet message is also troubling. There's just a lot of anger mixed into this story.

Three stars

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