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Synopsis
A group of children relate their adventures with a tyrannosaurus.
Children's Literature
A group of classmates join together to conquer boredom on a rainy day in this charming book that uses a timeless storytelling strategy as its base. Each child takes a turn adding his or her own sentence to a story about a Tyrannosaurus, leading the reader through an eclectic journey. Although this is written at a level for which a middle reader could understand it alone, it may be best for an adult to read along and help to explain and/or literally point out why the story is written in its style, especially the beginning. Because the first person narrative changes with each of the students, it may be confusing to understand. On that note, the ending comes unexpectedly. While one would expect to be brought out of the "story within a story" with an ending that wraps it up, the reader is somewhat left hanging, as it ends within the Tyrannosaurus tale rather than the original story about the children themselves. This book, however, does provide a good example of how young readers can spur their own imaginations by using group participation and their own creativity. Reviewer: Cherie Ilg Haas