A review by librariandest
If I Had a Dinosaur by Gabby Dawnay

2.0

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.

illustration from If I Had a Dinosaur

illustration from If I Had a Dinosaur

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.