Rex: Time Soldiers Book #1
Kindergarten-Grade 5—Brothers Rob and Mikey and their friends Jon, Mariah, Bernardo, and Adam discover a time portal in the woods behind their clubhouse. Upon entering it, they find themselves transported to prehistoric times. After a heart-stopping encounter with a T. rex and a pair of velociraptors, the group finds itself lost in a land before time. Surrounded by dinosaurs and pursued by the angry T. rex, the resourceful young travelers must rely on their wits and one another to find the portal and get home. This fast-moving tale is sure to grab the attention of video-minded children as it reads like an episode ofLand of the Lost. The characters are rather flat, acting like pawns in the nonstop pacing of the narrative, but the action will definitely keep the pages turning. Both plot and characters take a backseat to the full-spread illustrations: a cool blend of computer art and color photography. The text highlights the illustrations, running down the sides of the pages in columns to frame the photographs or along the bottom of the pages as if to underscore the artwork. Several questions go unanswered: why dinosaurs that lived millions of years apart from one another are together in one time period or the shady purpose of a man in black (who's wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night). This should be a huge hit with dinosaur-obsessed reluctant readers.—H. H. Henderson, Heritage Middle School, Deltona, FLCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.