cover image How to Care for Your T-Rex

How to Care for Your T-Rex

Ken Baker, illus. by Dave Coverly. Holt/Ottaviano, $17.99 (36p) ISBN 978-1-250-13751-7

In this humorous how-to guide, Baker (Old MacDonald Had a Dragon) takes readers through a day of caring for one enormous pet. T. rex facts supplement each care step, from walking briskly in the morning (“a T-Rex can cover fifteen feet in a single step”) to playing sports (its “twenty-foot-long tail” makes a keen ball-propeller) and brushing and flossing its “nine-inch teeth.” Throughout, the narrator offers gentle cautions, as when a boy tries to teach his seven-ton pet to roll over and ends up with a T-wrecked fence. Ink-and-watercolor illustrations by Coverly (Night of the Living Shadows) playfully depict excited kids and their less-than-thrilled adult counterparts alongside the adorably enormous dinosaur, and text in speech bubbles (“No eating off the floor!” “No eating THE floor!”) adds to the comic effect. Most important of all, the narrator reminds readers, “Even when mistakes are made, always treat your T-Rex with kindness.” A list of additional T. rex facts concludes. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)