An adventure about an unusual friendship in which a young boy, whose paleontologist parents are missing, finds himself in possessin of something long believed to be extinct.
Thank you Hannacroix Creek Books for kindly sending me this book and allowing me to read and review it for you. Also, they wanted me to let you know that this book is available in paperback, hardcover AND eBook just recently in February so you can read it in whatever format you choose! Enjoy the review! Davy’s parents are paleontologists; they search for dinosaur evidence in different parts of the world. This is the first time in four years that Davy has not been allowed to go with them; and it is the one dig they go missing. With Davy and his grandmother heart-broken at the news, his parents’ personal items get sent to them from Mount Kilimanjaro, the site of the exploration. When a mysterious looking egg ends up in the trunk of stuff, it hatches and out comes a baby T-rex! Now Davy has a pet T-rex that he is trying to keep a secret, but it is proving quite difficult because of how extremely large it is getting. Where will Davy hide the dinosaur, and how will he keep it away from the ruthless Professor Berenson who will stop at nothing to find Rex, Davy’s Tyrannosaurus. An extraordinary novel about a close relationship between a boy and something everyone believed to be extinct; Rex will have us turning the pages at a rapid pace.
My thoughts:
I thought Rex was a great book. I was never much into dinosaurs, but this story was really fascinating. It makes you think about all the possibilities; are dinosaurs REALLY extinct? Imagine, what would you do if a baby T-rex hatched in front of your very own eyes? Also, when you really think about how hard it must be to keep a 8-foot creature a secret, you think about what effect it would have on people who saw a massive creature which one minute ago they thought was extinct. I think Yager did a really great job describing the struggles of hiding him, and he captured the character of Berenson perfectly. The story is so realistic, and the setting was done really well, but in the same way it is NOT realistic because there are dinosaurs involved. Great job, Fred Yager and keep doing why you are doing! I would love to read another MG novel from you!
The kindest thing I can say is that it's a derivative amalgam of about five other moderately good works. The only critically relevant thing I can say is that this publisher needs to hire a better editor and copy editor. Repetition and typos abound.