Watch the unstoppable destructive force of a raging temper tantrum! Tremble at the enormous mess and disrespectful roaring! Despair as no amount of scolding can stem the heedless fury! Someone is heading for a time-out, Mister! Anyone who has witnessed (or been) a toddler in the throes of a full-blown fit will delight in this clever book's moviemonster rampage, and may just come away from it with a bit more sympathy for toddler and caregiver.
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
No Where Near as Good as Carnivores or Creepy Carrots by the Same Author
By James N Simpson
Previously I'd read the books Carnivores and Creepy Carrots by Reynolds which I rate as two of the best picture books I've ever come across. This one just had something missing. Something major. I don't believe a picture book has to have a moral lesson to it, but this one aside from comparing Godzilla to a toddler didn't really have much more to it. The destructosaurus causes a huge mess, knocks down buildings, rips up train stations ignoring pleas from the reader (who is obviously the parody of a parental voice) to behave and think about what its doing and the affects on those around it. I guess the humour in it is that the reader is a bit of a dead beat parent, the destructosaurus is instructed to clean up the mess its made but just ignores the narrator and goes back to the ocean. Before that, its tantrum behaviour is excused with oh you were just looking for your teddy bear, the narrator even apologises to it for what we'd just read where we were pointing out it was making the lives of others around it a misery, excusing those actions because it was looking for that bear. There's no punch line after either of these things which you kind of need if the book isn't going to be a what did we learn from this book by the destructosaurus being forced to clean up its mess or at least help to. Or the bear was taken away for a period of time or some sort of punishment to educate it not to repeat this action over and over again.Perhaps the ending should have been the parent creature was buying it a better toy or a treat food and because the destructosaurus rudely ignored it they could have eaten it themselves, given the toy to the chicken instead (which had no real role appearing on the final page) but was obviously supposed to be a sibling. Being the dark humour of Reynold's other books I was kind of expecting a much bigger monster to appear (the narrator) and punish Destructosaurus for ignoring it and continuing to misbehave.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
He's just misunderstood
By Dat Hong
I do love that this story is about a dinosaur named Destructosaurus. I think that is slightly genius. The illustrator should be praised for this book. It is colorful and fun. I had a few problems with the story. All parents can see the parallel between Destructosaurus and a child throwing a tantrum.In the story, we have the narrator telling Destructsaurus not to trample on things, have good manners, watch their attitude, and dealing with some other common child behavior. In the end, the tantrum was a misunderstanding of what Destructosaurus was looking for (a teddy bear). The narrator apologizes for the way he spoke to Destructosaurus, which is common in real life to how a parents feels after talking with a child in full tantrum. Then Destructosaurus heads back into the ocean without helping to clean up the mess he made. That part bothered me. Often after a tantrum parents are left trying to get their child to help clean up the mess they made. After he walks away the giant chicken comes out of the ocean to start it's own tantrum.I feel this story almost makes allowances for the tantrum (misunderstood Destructosaurus looking for a toy). It then allows Destructosaurus to get away with the behavior by having him walk back into the ocean without him taking responsibility for the mess he made during the tantrum. I don't think kids are going to pay attention to these details. They'll probably just enjoy the pictures and the future nickname of Destructo when they throw a tantrum.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.Gorgeously illustrated, decent plot, horrible take away
By Jesse Baynard
The cover, the first few pages and both my kids (4 & 6) and I were enthralled with this book. To start, a toddler like monster is scolded with motherly cliches from the narrator. Some of the text got broke the flow and even lost on the kids a bit (in particular the part where the narrator says roughly "Can't you see I'm busy... preparing for you're impending destruction with food and water")... I felt that it broke with metaphor... but that's nit picking. My main issue is that once the reader realizes that this tantrum was caused based on the monster's desire for a lost toy, the narrator apologizes to the monster for yelling at it (which really it didn't). The narrator does suggest that the monster use its words next time, but it does not insist on it, nor for an apology from the monster. When the monster ignores the pleas to clean up or otherwise make right his mess, he ignores it and without repercussion.So before I sound too alarmist, I must say that my kids did enjoy the book. And I willingly let them oblige me into rereading this cringe worthy book a few more times. I don't think they will become misbehaved, non-remorseful monsters from this book alone. However I do feel like that is the message the book is sending. Which is a shame, because it is a really cute book (which is why I still gave it 3 stars). I wish as the very least the monster's actions had consequences for himself or that he could have shown some sort of remorse.
