This kid has a cat but wants something bigger, something much, much bigger...like a dinosaur.

It's a rhyming story and those are rarely appealing to me (this one is no different) because they always seem somewhat forced (unless it's Dr. Seuss) and silly but kids love rhymes and they'll love this one so who cares what I think about the text? No one.

But you should care what I think about the illustrations: They are delightful! Except for when they aren't.
Let me point out the kid in question. If you didn't look at the cover art, you'd probably think it was some little white boy, based on my description.
The kid is not a little white boy. She's a little black girl and she loves dinosaurs because, yes, kids who are not male and who are not white also like dinosaurs. Hooray!
But then there's a problem.
Note to illustrator: Asian kids aren't actually yellow. You've got a bunch of other skin colors in here so I know you can mix pigments. Also, only the yellow children have eyes that are slanted lines instead of the round dots sported by all the other people in the story. Illustrator, please do better.
That goes triple for you, Publisher. You have staff who are supposed to keep you from looking like an ass yet you still look like an ass.

Back to the story. The kid imagines what it would be like to have a dinosaur and it's pretty much the same as every kid who imagines having a pet dinosaur but look at how she brushes its teeth!

SO CUTE!

And look at these end papers!!
Front


and back


ADORABLE!!!

So, pretty much, I mostly loved looking at this book. The bright, joyful pictures made me happy except for in the instances they made me question the illustrator's ability to draw. Go into this armed with that knowledge and be prepared for a conversation. And be ready to read in a sing-song rhymey voice.

This was another cute one lots of imagination and the art was amazing. Kids do want some of the strangest things, the rhymes were very clever too.

As another reviewer pointed out, this book is great except for the three small illustrations of Asian children that are unsettling. The other children in this book are brown, tan, peach, i.e. realistic colors. The Asian children are a greenish yellowish color that looks out of place. Their eyes are slanted lines while the other children's eyes are circles. It's jarring.

In online images, the color of the Asian children seems less offensively yellow than it does in the printed book in front of me.





Maybe this is an issue with how the color turned out in the printing of the book. That, however, does not explain the eyes. Looking again at this book, I'm reminded of the Cousin Chin-Kee character from [b: American Born Chinese|118944|American Born Chinese|Gene Luen Yang|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1317066615s/118944.jpg|114515].

It's a real shame because otherwise this book is fun -- pretty good rhyming and big, bold illustrations of a huge green dinosaur. A few of the words are replaced with pictures, including one of a big emoji style poo.

A frequently requested nighttime read by my 3 year old, who’s going through a bit of a dinosaur phase at the moment. He giggles his way through the pages and always wants to know which dinosaur on the last page was the one responsible for the big surprise (no spoilers) earlier in the story. Quite a fun read overall.

Why would you draw Asian characters this way. Why why why. Why? This is horrendous.

Simple art, cute story in rhyme, and a hilarious cat as a side character. It’s just okay.

Shame that the asian kid is painted yellow. Literal yellow. Other than that, the diversity is great.

4.5/5 A really lovely rhyming story about having a dinosaur as a pet. The pacing is great, the vocabulary is age appropriate and the illustrations are bright, appealing and full of little details so each time you read the story there are new things to spot. I particularly love that the story is about a little girl as so many dino books are targeted at boys and its doubly great that she happens to be non-white too. This book would obviously be fantastic in a classroom as a spring board for lessons on pets/dinosaurs but also has some good linkage opportunities with self care, daily routines, nursery rhymes, creative problem solving and more - I think it would be a brilliant resource for any educator to have on their shelf!

This is a really cute story, and I love that the main character who wants a dinosaur is a girl - and a girl of color no less. However, there is a little boy in the book who is Asian and has green skin. Even worse, he has slanted eyes. Maybe the illustrator can redo the book.