Review - How to Catch a Dinosaur

How to Catch a Dinosaur
by Adam Wallace
illustrated by Andy Elkerton
Date: 2019
Publisher: Sourcebooks Wonderland
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 40
Format: e-book
Source: NetGalley

Do YOU have what it takes to catch a prehistoric pal?

This newest installment in the New York Times and USA Today bestselling series is sure to delight every dinosaur fan!

Can you catch a dinosaur
and prove they're still around?
Use your brain and set your traps
to get that dino found!

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I don't think this series is for me.

I read How to Catch the Easter Bunny last month, and I found it weird and uninspired. What kind of prey gives hunting suggestions to a predator? I figured that may just have been the weirdness of that particular book since it deals with a mythological creature. Unfortunately, even though we're dealing with a real creature here, I didn't like this one much more.

The story this time, rather than being told from the point of view of the dinosaur (as I was expecting, given how that other book was written), is told by a young boy who wants to win the science fair. He thinks that if he can just catch a dinosaur, he might have a chance. The book does point out that dinosaur relatives are still around, and that birds are distant cousins of the "terrible lizards". But then it basically shows an anthropomorphized dinosaur running around a modern neighbourhood. (That blurs the line between reality and fantasy just a little too much for me. While that premise didn't bother me so much in the book about the Easter Bunny, it could be confusing to some kids when they read a book that implies real dinosaurs are still around.)

As for the writing... Oh, dear. The rhyming text is so clunky. Getting the rhythm and meter right must be a tricky thing to do, because I rarely see it done well. It's not done particularly well here at all. You can't just rhyme the last two words of the second and fourth lines and ignore the number of syllables in the rest of the text. At least, you can't if you want it to roll off the tongue.

Overall, this didn't impress me that much. The illustrations are perhaps the strongest part of the book. But the implication that dinosaurs are running around suburbia coupled with the clumsy rhyming text make this a book that I'd have a hard time recommending.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Wonderland for providing a digital ARC.

Premise: 2/5
Meter: 2/5
Writing: 3/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall: 2.43 out of 5