Dinosaur Dream ANNOTATION
After reading about dinosaurs and then falling asleep, Wilbur sees a baby apatosaurus outside his bedroom and travels backwards through time to return it to its Jurassic time period.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
It's not every little boy who gets to meet a baby dinosaur, much less travel back in time with him to the Age of the Dinosaurs. But that's exactly what happens to young Wilbur in this engaging fantasy about a trip back to a time some 140 million years ago.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Talk about the odd couple: this sweetly written, captivating picture book limns the camaraderie between dinosaur enthusiast Wilbur (his red pj's sport a dinosaur silhouette) and Gideon, an escapee from the Jurassic period. When the baby dino comes calling after Wilbur falls asleep, the practical boy realizes the unsuitability of the situation and resolves to lead his visitor home--``Follow me, Gideon. . .we have one hundred forty million years to go through.'' In an appealing twist, the intrepid lad proves more courageous than the dinosaur: one of Nolan's ( Step into the Night ; Mockingbird Morning ) luminous watercolors depicts Wilbur trudging through a new snowfall, as a whining Gideon follows precisely in the cleared track. So deftly does the author build this relationship during their arduous journey that children--and adults as well--may blink back a tear when the two friends finally part. Wilbur is a model hero, without a hint of precocity in manner or appearance, and red-eyed Gideon ranks with the best of animal creations. No bones about it, this is a real charmer. Ages 4-7. (Oct.)
Children's Literature
This is the story of Wilbur, whose interest in dinosaurs and ages past becomes a part of his vivid imagination, as he takes a journey with Gideon, a brontosaurus, all the way back through time to the Jurassic Period. Along the way, they meet up with woolly mammoths in the Ice Age and a Mesohippus from the Tertiary Period, as well as a few other ancient creatures. This delightful story, with its soft-hued illustrations not only teaches young readers about dinosaurs and different periods in time, but it also provides adventure and excitement. Some readers might struggle with the amount of text and the difficult terms regarding the genus and species names of the dinosaurs and the names of the time periods. However, it is a great book to read aloud to children or along with them. 2000 (orig. 1990), Aladdin Paperbacks, and $5.99. Ages 5 to 8. Reviewer: Sheree Van Vreede
School Library Journal
K-Gr 3-- There's too much highbrow hype and not enough good storytelling to make this book linger in readers' memories. Wilbur befriends Gideon, a baby dinosaur, in the middle of the night (or--is it only a dream? The trite plot gimmick doesn't help). The two of them travel back through time, exploring the Ice Age and the different eras of reptiles, until Gideon returns to the Jurassic period, where he belongs. Sure, this is a fantasy, so it's conceivable that Wilbur and Gideon could trek through the snows of the Ice Age, visiting woolly mammoths and saber-toothed tigers. But writing fiction doesn't excuse misinformation. Wilbur's statement, ``Soon we'll be out of the Ice Age and into the Age of Mammals,'' seems to exclude tigers and mammoths from Mammalia altogether. The painted illustrations, which at first look very attractive, work best when they stick to realism, such as a bird's-eye view looking down over the head of a Triceratops. But a closeup of Wilbur hugging Gideon, with glowing clouds in the background, is as cloying as sofa-sized painted sunsets. Try Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo (Harper, 1988) by William Joyce for a better-realized story about a dinosaur compadre. --Cathryn A. Camper, Minneapolis Public Library
Home
