The Tyrannosaurus Game
Kindergarten-Grade 1—On a rainy day, 12 children sit in a circle in their classroom to make up a story. Jimmy begins by telling how a tyrannosaurus crashed through the window of his house while he was eating breakfast Saturday morning. On successive spreads, each child adds to the story with a sentence or two that sends the hapless dinosaur on a chaotic chase onto a bus, through a playground, onto some amusement-park rides, and eventually coming to a stop in a topiary garden where the children try to hide him from the cops. Schindler does his best to add some excitement to the stilted narrative by drawing the tyrannosaurus as a huge, mean-looking beast thrust into absurd situations surrounded by an increasing mob of kids. Although the story could have some merit as an example of a familiar type of storytelling game, the adventure itself is rather pointless and the ending is too abrupt. This picture book does not live up to its promising title.—Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT(c) Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.