Digger the Dinosaur

July 1, 2013
Dotlich's text makes good use of assonance and internal rhymes to support new readers' decoding skills in this story about a dinosaur who needs to clean up his bedroom before he can go outside to play ball. Momasaur is displeased with the state of Digger's room, and when he asks if he can go play ball with his friend, Stego, she replies sternly, "No....Your room is a mess." Digger mistakes the word "mess" for "yes," but Stego corrects him, and in a spirit of friendly generosity, offers to help him clean up. Digger continues to fail to attend carefully to others' words as he confuses Stego's helpful directions, mishearing "hook" as "book" and "bones" as "stones." Then Stego becomes distracted and mistakes Momasaur's final direction to put "hats" away as putting "cats" away. Digger catches the mistake as the poor cats meow from within an armoire, and then they quickly free them and tidy up the hats before going outside to play ball. Cartoonish illustrations seem like they'd be right at home in an animator's studio, though background detail is a bit overdone and potentially distracting in a book with such a well-controlled text. A strong new series for brand-new readers. (Early reader. 4-6)

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November 1, 2013

PreS-Gr 1-Digger is a dino kid who has trouble listening. Whenever someone tells him something, he often hears a rhyming word instead. In the first book, Momasaur tells him to clean his room with the aid of his friend, Stego. Stego instructs him to hang his jacket on the hook, but Digger puts it on a book. In Cake Mistake, Digger and his dad are asked to do an important errand, but can't find the cake shop. When Dadasaur says, "We take a right here," Digger hears: "A BITE here?!" This simple form of malapropism is evident in both books and adds to the comic nature of the stories. These books lend themselves to lap reading; the repetition and the lively illustrations will keep the younger audience's attention. Emerging readers may delight in the plays on words, but some will just become exasperated with the dino's antics. Extra purchases where easy readers are needed.-Jasmine L. Precopio, Fox Chapel Area School District, Pittsburgh, PA

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2014
Momasaur asks Digger to clean his room; he picks up a cake with Dadasaur. In both stories, the little dino is always misunderstanding things: he puts his coat on a book instead of the hook; "Did you pass a park?" yields "a shark?!" The text is sometimes choppy, but silly scenarios and basic words accompanied by friendly illustrations make for a pleasurable early reading experience.

(Copyright 2014 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)