3 out of 4 stars
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The Last Surviving Dinosaur: The TyrantoCrankaTsuris by Steven Joseph is a quaint little book with amusing illustrations. The author is Jewish and a great deal of the charm of the book is the way that he makes fun of Jewish stereotypes. The main stereotype being the need to prove to everybody that your ‘tsuris’, or problem, far outweighs the ‘tsuris’ of everybody else in the room or even the planet.
I enjoyed this little book which claims that the human race is descended from a ‘tsuris’ dinosaur who mated with a ‘kvetching’ dinosaur. I also enjoyed the Yiddish cries of ‘oy!’ which came up in the story.
I particularly enjoyed how some of the illustrations contained jokes that were not mentioned in the text. The TyranoKvetchaTsuris arrives from Florida and it is obvious from the illustration that he experienced a similar adventure with the toe fungus and the alligator. However, he still managed to get one up on the TyrantoCrankaTsuris. If you want to know how come the TyrantoKvetchaTsuris is immune to the endless complaining of the TyrantoCrankaTsuris, the answer is in the illustration.
The pictures are colourful and great fun and I didn’t find any problems with the grammar or spelling. I have two criticisms which are that the book states that dinosaurs became extinct in the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages followed the fall of the Roman Empire. Dinosaurs had already been extinct for over 65 million years before that happened.
My other criticism is the claim that only one dinosaur survived. Actually, two survived and knowing what a pedant I was as a child, I probably would have raised this issue with my parents.
The book looks to me to have been professionally edited. However, I find it hard to gauge what age group it is aimed at. It’s obviously a children’s book, but
I think an adult mind is required to fully enjoy the gentle self-deprecation and the use of stereotypes. A very young child would probably enjoy the pictures without making the relevant connections. However, I always like it when a children’s book works on more than one level and there is something there for the parents as well as the child.
This book made me smile but not laugh out loud, so while I have few criticisms, I’m awarding it 3 out of 4 stars.
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The Last Surviving Dinosaur: The TyrantoCrankaTsuris
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