Gigantosaurus

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It's still a lazy retelling of The Boy Who Cried Wolf but like that it would at least make sense as a story.

Although their dinosaur elders warn four youngsters about the fierce Gingantosaurus, they still enjoy playing. Please DO NOT view the PowerPoint in PowerPoint viewer, view it as a SLIDESHOW, otherwise it will not be interactive. In fact, it was a year spent working on a square-rigger vessel, combined with his work as a concept artist on the Pirates of the Carribbean computer game, that inspired Jonny to create his highly successful debut picture book, The Pirate Cruncher.

Watch this time-lapse video of the author creating illustrations for covers of the Harry Potter books. It also provides information on dinosaurs and the acknowledgement that the Gigantosaurus was created just for the book. As an illustrator myself, I have to admit that I’ve not been that wowed by digital art for children, but this one demonstrates that if you know what you’re doing you can create the depth and detail that usually only comes from physicalart. And I was most happy to see in the back endpapers the disclaimer that Gigantosaurs had been made up for the story BUT that it is very similar to what once was a real dinosaur, the Giganotosaurus. All we’ve heard about for at least the last decade is The Gruffalo (I know it was first published in 1999, but as with most things it took numerous years to become a household word).

Four little dinosaurs are playing outside, but their mothers have warned them to watch out for the Gigantosaurus.Three cute dinosaurs and one ugly dinosaur subtly named Bonehead are warned by their parents to avoid the Gigantosaurus. Includes a colorful poster and more information about dinosaurs -- including the eponymous Gigantosaurus.

Although there aren't a lot of surprises here, the digital illustrations and story are sure to have dino-mite appeal for dinosaur lovers.In the end, they still don't trust him (he does survive) and I thought that was a shame for the poor little dinosaur who was just trying to be a good lookout. There’s also a clever fold out when the ‘Gigantosaurus’ finally appears – the board book being too small to contain him. A note on the illustrations: Duddle anthropomorphizes the characters in a way similar to Pixar or Disney movies. He thinks it's hilarious to falsely warn the others about approaching enemies, just to watch them scurry and hide for nothing. When the Gigantosaurus finally comes, the little dinosaurs don't believe Bonehead and they don't run yet somehow it's Bonehead who gets eaten.

As a rule, the problem with rhythmic stories for children – which you notice when you’re reading them out loud over and over again – is that you often find that you want to add or remove words to retain a more poetic flow than the original. But like the boy who cried wolf in the famous folktale, Bonehead doesn't take his job as lookout seriously. The use of repetition will be a winner with the readers and I can imagine the story being recited loudly all over the house. After Gigantosaurus wanders off, the friends think their little buddy Ankylosaurus had been turned into lunch. One of the dinosaurs decides to be look out while they are playing and starts testing the others by yelling they see the Gigantosaurus every other minute only to say they were kidding.

Having a small boy (our very own Gruffalo’s Child), my husband and I can confidently recite the book from cover to cover (as can our son, an avid reader who has already loved several copies to death). I like the back of the book that tells about the different dinosaurs and also about the true Giganotosaurus (yes that's how you spell it). I also really like that at the end of the book there are a few pages dedicated to meeting the dinosaurs from the book with the dinosaurs names and a little fact about each of them. World Book Day's mission is to offer every child and young person the opportunity to read and love books.