  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 07/01/2013 PreS-K—When a long-necked dinosaur serves as the bus, none of the kids want to miss school. Though everyone loves Gus-the city even builds a special road just for him-the principal finally tires of complaints about him knocking down traffic lights and getting tangled in phone wires and removes him from the road. Relegated to the school gym, Gus makes a swimming pool with his tears and finds a new life as the school's playground, with a swing on his tail and his long neck serving as a slide. In tone and visual details, this gentle story is reminiscent of Syd Hoff's classic Danny and the Dinosaur (HarperCollins, 1958). Lynn's scratchy, childlike watercolor and pencil cartoons have a daydreamy quality that suits Liu's simple text. Gus's story holds universal appeal; even a dinosaur can learn to turn lemons into lemonade.—Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD - Copyright 2013 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Bulletin for the Center... - 09/01/2013 Never mind a mundane yellow schoolbus-the way to really travel to school is aboard Gus, a huge green apatosaurus-like dinosaur, who carries kids to school in style (“The children who live in apartments don’t even need to walk downstairs. They hop out their windows and slide down to their seats”). Unfortunately, even the most careful dinosaur bus can cause some problems with overpasses and telephone lines, and eventually the principal shuts down the reptilian ride. Despite the reassurance of his passengers, a mortified Gus weeps in the gym-and his dinosaur tears flood the place, creating a pool for the school and giving Gus a new career as a waterslide. Liu’s evocative present-tense text in this Taiwanese import is rich with scene-setting detail yet also simple and confiding in its descriptions, hitting all those details that make this a perfect child-sized dinosaur fantasy (“Along his route, people leave him snacks. Like two tons of french fries”). Vigorous black pencil provides the backbone of the illustrations, with linework that recalls Neal Layton’s childlike squiggles in The Mammoth Academy (BCCB 10/08). Smooth or smoothly striated, crisp-edged panels of color in the limited palette look more like digital art than the stated watercolor, but the overall effect is one of child-made and crayon-colored artwork. Pea-green Gus dominates the spreads, counterpointed by touches of slate and coral and knee-high crowds of kids in well-balanced compositions. After meeting Gus, kids will greet the morning minivan with a sigh of disappointment. DS - Copyright 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
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