Saturday, December 31, 2022

Review: How to Catch a Daddysaurus by Alice Walstead

 

Genre: Children's 4-8
Published: April 4, 2023
Pages: 40



The newest addition in the New York Times and USA Today bestselling How to Catch series―do YOU have the rad skills needed to catch the mystical Daddysaurus?

The Catch Club Kids are at it again! This time, they're out to trap the Daddysaurus―a mystical creature capable of such amazing acts of kindness, bravery, brilliance and humor. The kids try to trap the creature with all his favorite activities, but will they succeed? Maybe all they need is a little sweetness to make this awesome Daddysaurus appear! The perfect gift for children ages 4-10 to share with Dad at Father's Day, Christmas, and beyond, this fun dinosaur picture book is filled with silly rhymes and illustrations sure to delight young readers and educators alike with STEAM concepts and classic hilarity and chaos.

Have you ever heard of the Daddysaurus, known for his kindness and bravery too?

We're on a mission to catch him today, but we may need some help from YOU!



I received a copy of this book through Netgalley. This is my honest review. 

This is a rhyming book, but I wish it wasn't. To make the rhymes work, the sentence structure was awkward and often didn't flow well. At times it felt almost like Yoda speak, but that feeling wasn't consistent either. I just felt so tripped up with this that I couldn't really enjoy the meat of the story. 

And about that, the main point of the story is to talk about all the things a daddysaurus does or teaches. The feminist in me has some mixed feelings about that, worrying that it may give the impression that a mommysaurus can't do those things too, but I know this isn't about me. I could see the message being problematic for kids who don't have a father figure in their life though. 

The illustrations are where this book really shined for me. They were bright and colorful, depicting all the things this group of kids tried to do to catch their daddysaurus. And the illustrations were detailed with a lot of fun little gems. 

I would struggle with reading this book to my kids multiple times because of the syntax issues I have with it, but I'd probably push through because the message is good overall. I give it 3.1 out of 5 stars. - Katie 




Alice Walstead is a children’s book author who loves to make kids smile with her stories.

Andy Elkerton is a children’s book illustrator who loves to create creatures that are impossible to catch! He is known for his work on the New York Times bestselling How to Catch series and is based in the United Kingdom.

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