cover image Tiny T. Rex and the Perfect Valentine

Tiny T. Rex and the Perfect Valentine

Jonathan Stutzman, illus. by Jay Fleck. Chronicle, $7.99 (18p) ISBN 978-1-4521-8489-0

This board book starring the pint-size, short-armed protagonist of the eponymous picture book series finds Tiny T. Rex with another dilemma. Tiny wants to make a valentine for best friend Pointy, a coral-colored stegosaurus. After all, it’s “the best way to show how BIG your heart feels for someone,” Tiny informs the audience in first-person perspective. But when Tiny wheels out red paint, the can tips all over the teeny theropod, and an idea involving glitter results in similar chaos. Undeterred, Tiny tries again and again, until finally: “The only thing I have made for Pointy is a very big, very messy... mess,” Tiny admits, as Fleck’s charming art shows the dinosaur in a pile of glitter, covered in paper hearts, glue, springs, and scraps. But Pointy, of course, is not disappointed. A predictably sweet dino-centric take on a classic theme: the heart behind a gift mattering more than the gift itself. Ages 2–4.[em] (Dec.) [/em]