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Summary
Summary
SOMETIMES THE MOST UNLIKELY PAIRS MAKE THE BEST OF FRIENDS. A hilarious prehistoric yarn for newly-independent readers from a master of children's animal stories.
All pterodactyls know that flying dinosaurs are superior, and all apatosauruses know that any dinosaur with only two legs is surely second-class. Nosy, a pterodactyl, and Banty, an apatosaurus, become great friends even though their parents have forbidden them to play together. With Nosy's fast flying and Banty's smarts, the two take on the biggest predator on the Great Plain, and conquer their parents' prejudices in one great adventure.
Author Notes
Dick King-Smith was born on March 27, 1922 in Bitten, Gloucestershire, England. Before becoming a full-time author, he was a farmer and a schoolteacher. He served in the Grenadier Guards during World War II and attended Marlborough College in Wiltshire.
He has written over 100 children's books including The Fox Busters, The Hodgeheg, and The Sheep Pig (aka Babe-The Gallant Pig), which was adapted as the 1995 film Babe. The 1995 TV miniseries The Queen's Nose was also based in one of his books. He was voted Children's Author of the Year at the 1991 British Book Awards. He died on January 4, 2011 at the age of 88.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Horn Book Review
Although pterodactyls and apatosauruses generally dislike each other, young Nosy the pterodactyl and Banty the apatosaurus become best friends, challenging their parents' prejudices as well. When a T. Rex terrorizes the neighborhood, the two hatch a plan to get rid of him. The story, illustrated with lively black-and-white cartoons, doesn't let its message overshadow the plot. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Nosy, a newly hatched pterodactyl, emerges from his shell peppering his mother with questions. From her answers he quickly learns a number of big words about himself: nidifugous, pterodactyl, pulchritudinous, and nomenclature. And that's just in the first four pages. His utter faith in his mother's wisdom falters when he spies a young apatosaurus by the river, whom his mother dismisses as a second-class creature. (At the same time, the apatosaurus mother calls the pterodactyls much inferior to us.) Nosy seeks out the dino anyway, and the two eventually unite their families. Together they devise a plan to end the Tyrannosaurus rex's reign of terror and have more success than anticipated. Much of the book's humor relies on wordplay and the juxtaposition of the clever mothers next to their dim-witted husbands. Frequent black-and-white cartoon illustrations, both inset and full page, enliven the text and add a light comic tone. Complex vocabulary and sentence structure make this book a good fit for advanced young readers or as a read-aloud.--Harold, Suzanne Copyright 2008 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-4-Nosy is a young pterodactyl and Banty is a young apatosaurus. Both of their families are scornful of the other and try to instill their distain in their offspring. After all, pterodactyls are superior because they can fly. And apatosaurus are better because they have four legs and are herbivores. In spite of their parents' objections and their obvious differences, the two young dinosaurs become friends and help unite their families in the face of a common foe-a T. rex named Hack the Ripper. The lessons about friendship, working together, and not prejudging others are not subtle, but the story is engaging and fun and readers will not mind the messages. Children are also likely to learn new words as Nosy's mother speaks with a highly inflated vocabulary. "We are, after all aeronauts of remarkable facility and versatility." Luckily, most of her words have to be explained/translated for the other dinosaurs. The black-and-white spot art captures the characters' expressions and, with the exception of the T. rex, appears almost sweet. The story is a good choice for dinophiles who have moved beyond picture books and are ready for easy chapter books.-Kelly Roth, Bartow County Public Library, Cartersville, GA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Replacing his usual stock of farm animals with an older, more primitive cast, King-Smith pits families of Pterodactyls and Apatosaurs against a predatory T. rex. After ignoring the species prejudice of their parents to strike up a friendship, leather-winged newborn Nosy and hulking Banty (short for "Bantamweight," which she is when compared to her mother and father) come up with a daring plan to drive toothy Hack the Ripper out of the area. Their intellectually pretentious Moms and dimwitted Dads are initially reluctant but eventually agree to pitch in--and it all works out even better than expected. In Bruel's frequent cartoon scenes and vignettes, the players display a supple solidity as they smile, scowl or look confused according to their assigned roles. The unusual setting and mild suspense of this celebration of interspecies cooperation will draw in recent easy-reader graduates. The addition of multi-syllabic dinosaur names and Latinate vocabulary words add extra appeal. (Fantasy. 8-10) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Dinosaur Trouble 1 When he hatched from his egg, the first thing the baby saw was a huge face looking down at him. Above a long, toothless, beaked jaw, two large eyes stared into his as he struggled free of the egg. Once the baby was out, he could see that the creature had big leathery wings, stretching from its fingers to its knees, and that it had long, slender legs. "Hello!" it said. "Who are you?" asked the baby. "Your mother," the creature replied. "Nice to see you. Let's go flying." And she spread her big leathery wings and took off. Could I do that ? wondered the baby. Only one way to find out. So he spread his very small wings and flew up after his mother. "Well done!" she cried when he reached her. "It's nice to be nidifugous, isn't it?" "What does 'nidifugous' mean, Mom?" the baby asked. "It means to be able to fly as soon as you're hatched. All pterodactyls can." "What does 'pterodactyl' mean, Mom?" "Creatures like us," the baby's mother replied." Pteron means 'wing,' and daktylos means 'finger.' Each of my wings is attached to each of my fourth fingers, see? And so are yours." "So I'm a whatever-you-said, am I?" "A pterodactyl. Yes, you are, my son. And a very pulchritudinous one too." "What does 'pulchritudinous' mean, Mom?" "Beautiful." "Oh," said the baby pterodactyl, and he kicked his little legs happily as he flew high above the rocky land. "Now," said his mother, "there's the matter of nomenclature." "What," said the baby, "does 'nomenclature' mean, Mom?" "Names. You have to have one." "Gosh, you do know a lot of long words, Mom." "One has to," said his mother, "in these Jurassic days, if one wants to survive. Who knows, one day pterodactyls might become extinct. And before you ask me what 'extinct' means, I'll tell you. It means gone, finished, kaput, dead and done for." "But, Mom," the baby said, "I don't want to be extinct." "Don't worry your head about it," his mother said. "If it should happen, it won't be for millions and millions of years, my son. Now then, what shall we call you? You ask enough questions. How about Nosy? How d'you like that?" The baby waggled his small but rather long snout. "I don't mind," he said, "but, Mom, what's your name?" "Aviatrix," said his mother. "What does 'Aviatrix' mean, Mom?" asked Nosy. "A female flier. In the skills of flying, among all pterodactyls, I am paramount." This time Nosy didn't ask anything. He simply said, "I suppose that means 'the best.'" "It does, Nosy, my boy," replied Aviatrix. "It most certainly does." Mother and son flew on, side by side. Nosy flapped along as fast as he could while his mother flew slowly so that he could keep up with her. "Mom," said Nosy after a while, "where are we going?" "To see your father," said Aviatrix. "Oh. What's he called?" "His name is Clawed. You'll see why when you meet him. Never have there been claws like his." Before long they left behind the dry stony place where Nosy had hatched among the hot rocks, and came to a wood. Here there were quite a number of pterodactyls, hanging upside down as pterodactyls do, each gripping a branch with its taloned feet. The biggest one, Nosy could see as they dropped lower, had the most enormous claws. "There he is!" cried Aviatrix. "There's my Clawed! Come on, Nosy, come and meet your daddy!" Copyright (c) 2005 by Foxbusters Ltd. Excerpted from Dinosaur Trouble by Dick King-Smith All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
