Tar Pit

by Tor Seidler

Tor Seidler gracefully unfolds the engaging story of Edward Small, Jr., and his amazing (and huge) friend.Edward may not be very good at schoolwork or at baseball or be very popular, but he has a truly amazing best friend: an enormous Allosaurus named Alexander who obeys Edward's every command and can crunch Edward's enemies in a heartbeat. There is no place Edward is happier than on the bank of the tar pit where his fantastical friend lives -- but little does he know that something remarkably real is about to emerge from the tarry depths and change his life forever.

The Tar Pit has all the right ingredients for middle-grade readers: a school setting, humor, identifiable family challenges, a touch of fantasy, and, of course, a dinosaur.

Library Binding

First published September 1, 1987

Reviews

[Bri · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mom got this one for me in 2004, when I was 9 years old, but I never got around to reading it until now -- 21 years later -- and I'm not sure if my third-grade self would've liked it much. There's a dinosaur on the cover, which was why my mom picked it out for me, but there aren't any real dinosaurs in the story; they're all imaginary. It's actually just a standard slice-of-life about a teen working out his problems in the 1980s rust belt, and I suspect the dinosaur stuff was there to market the book to kids like me who'd (rightfully, imo) have no interest in such a story. Still, I guess it's not the worst.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some truly frightening passages