T. Rex at Swan Lake by Lisa Carrier

by Lisa Carrier

After ninety-nine years of being on display at the Natural History Museum, T. Rex&150a dinosaur skeleton&150is bored. She yearns for the days when she used to leap in meadows and tiptoe through streams. When she overhears two museum visitors discussing a performance of Swan Lake, T. Rex gets a wonderful she will dance in the ballet! Author This is Lisa Carrier's first book. Lenore Hart is the author of an adult novel, Waterwoman (Berkley). Chris Demarest is the award-winning illustrator and author-illustrator of more than one hundred titles, including The New York Times Top Ten Picture Book Firefighters A to Z.

Genres: Dinosaurs, Picture Books, Childrens

Hardcover

First published June 10, 2004

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just what every T. Rex skeleton wants to do...dance in a production of Swan Lake! A T. Rex skeleton in a tutu; that image is with me forever now!

[Tessa Sells · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thee's a t-rex who breas out of a museum to become a ballerina.

[Erma Talamante · Rating 4 out of 5]

A funny a book about a T. Rex who is tired of her life at the museum, and dreams of doing something more. This inspirational story features a T. Rex who overhears a conversation and is inspired to try something new in her old age - something wonderful. Something called ballet! She makes her way to the Opera House, enjoying the trip, and then stealing the show as she prances and whirls and leaps about. But at the end of the day, T. Rex has to go home, and her best friend is there to take her. My daughter twirled and whirled and danced with T. Rex, loving this story. I loved the message of trying something new.

[Kristina W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just read this with the little one. She checked it out of the library last week. Very cute. And since she's been to the Natural History Museum, she enjoyed the story.

[J. Boo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, tired of standing around as a museum exhibit for the last 99 years, and remembering the days when she would traipse about the fields (while prey fled in terror), hears about a performance of Swan Lake next door and decides to leave the museum to check it out (panicking the crowds of tourists). She sneaks into the theatre, borrows a very, very oversized tutu, and joins in.

I and DD#1 (age 4) both enjoyed it, but DS#2 (age 2), a dinosaur enthusiast, loudly and repeatedly expressed his disdain ("No like it! No like it!") Not sure why; too girly, perhaps, though it didn't seem overwhelmingly so to me.

[Baycee Reed]

Enchanting, Whimsical, Round Character

When T. Rex hears about the ballet she decides she has had enough of standing still in a museum. She bounds across town and tries on a tutu to perform in Swan Lake. Will the crowd accept its new ballerina?

This is a picture book. Illustrator Chris Medarest created great pictures to follow along with the text. The pictures add animation and life to the page.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointed not to see any people of color in any of the many spreads involving people. Museum-goers, street scenes, orchestra, dancers, audience.

[Tricia · Rating 2 out of 5]

a bored dinosaur wanders from the museum on to a ballet stage. the tutu is quite humorous and the we loved the ending. didn't see it as potential readaloud material for me personally but somebody slick could pull it off.

[Lorena · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a cute story. I was reading it to a group of about 10 kindergarteners at the end of my class. It was a few pages too long and my kids began loosing interest the last quarter of the book. If it was a bit shorter it would be a winner.

[Mitchell Ary · Rating 2 out of 5]

honestly i hate that the skeleton who has no muscles can move about the city as she pleases without a nervous system, a spinal cord or a brain she can do everything that a vertebrate organism can do. thoroughly annoyed right now.

[The Brothers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A kind of weird story about a skeleton of a T-Rex who fondly wishes for the "old days" and then decides to try ballet dancing to fill up her life. Asher really enjoyed it though.

The illustrations are certainly unique and fun!

[Shyam Rahim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun story about a t-rex who lives in the Natural History Museum. She gets the urge to break free and ends up dancing in a ballet before she goes back to her spot at the Museum.

[Cece · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very cute book about a dinosaur. Children will enjoy reading this book, because it has a dinosaur pretending to be a ballerina.

[Kiera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good illustrations. An interesting (but random) story of a very lively T-Rex skeleton.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very humorous, and I love the T-Rex's personality.

[Lisa Andres · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. Cute premise but something about the story didn't quite do it for me.

[Jamie Call · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picture Book
This book was such a clever idea! The opposition between a giant, usually vicious T-Rex and the dainty ballet makes for some good humor.