Detective Dinosaur: Discovering Reading Should Be Easier
Written: Oct 14 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: funny stories, engaging illustrations
Cons: vocabulary too hard for these third graders, not meant for adult audience
The Bottom Line: Detective Dinosaur appeals primarily to readers in the younger grades. Adults should look elsewhere.
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| jdhauer's Full Review: James Skofield - Detective Dinosaur |
I had the pleasure this week of volunteering at my daughter's school and had the opportunity to work with a small group of third grade students who needed some extra work in reading. The book the teacher assigned to the group was Detective Dinosaur by James Skofield.
Detective Dinosaur is a 48 page book that is divided into three chapters which can be read individually instead of consecutively. This is a level 2 I Can Read book with an Accelerated Reader rating of 2.8.
The kids I read this book with all liked the storyline which had Detective Dinosaur solving three mysteries: The Mystery of the Missing Hat, The Case of the Squeaky Shoe, and Night Patrol.
In The Mystery of the Missing Hat, Detective Dinosaur is searching for his hat which is on his head the entire time. The Case of the Squeaky Shoe has readers wondering just what is causing Detective Dinosaur's shoes to squeak. It so happens that there is a mouse in his shoes and that mouse squeaks everytime the dinosaur takes a step. I'd do a lot more than squeak if a gigantic dinosaur was stepping on me! Finally, in Night Patrol, the dinosaurs must figure out what is making a horrible noise in an alley. Could it be a monster? No, simply a baby stegosaurus with her tail caught in a trash can lid.
The children all reported that the stories were funny. At the same time, the kids weren't happy with the vocabulary. Despite the fact that they all like dinosaurs, words like Diplodocus, Pterodactyl, Tyrannosaurus and Stegosaurus were difficult for them.
The book is filled with eye-catching watercolor and ink cartoon illustrations. In addition to being colorful, there's a lot of humor in the artwork such as the way that Detective Dinosaur's full head is never shown in "The Mystery of the Missing Hat" so the joke isn't given away prematurely.
Overall, the kids liked this book but felt some frustration with the vocabularly. I'm not sure that I personally would choose this book for a struggling reader at this level unless I knew that the child loved dinosaurs and could handle the names without too much frustration.
I would not recommend this book for the average adult reader as I think an adult would find the jokes rather lame and the story quite predictable. I honestly do not think the majority of adults looking for a scintillating thriller would look to Dectective Dinosaur to fulfill their reading expectations.
Recommended:
Yes
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jdhauer
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