Samanthasaurus Rex by B. B. Mandell, illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman - ADVISABLE

Mandell, B. B.  Samanthasaurus Rex, illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman.  PICTURE BOOK.  Balzar + Bray (Harper Collins), 2016.  $17.99.   

Samanthasaurus Rex isn’t like the rest of her T Rex family.  She’d rather paint pictures of dinosaurs, then eat them.  She likes to organize bones.  She uses her words instead of biting and fighting.  Her mother tells her that girls need to be strong.  Her father tells her that girls need to be leaders.  Her brother tells her that girls need to make a lot of noise.  But her family doesn’t realize that she is all those things until they get caught in a volcano eruption.  Samanthasaurus is strong, a good leader, and can make a lot of noise when she saves her family in her own untraditional way. 

The story is clever and cute and teaches kids that it’s okay to be different.  Samanthasaurus solves the problems in the story with her own ingenuity and uniqueness.  The illustrations are bright and colorful and make the prehistoric characters very relatable to kids today.  At its heart, it’s a story of individuality and family acceptance.   

Pre-K, EL-ADVISABLE.  Samantha Hastings, MA, MLS.