Rex goes on an intergalactic guinea pig rescue mission in his next adventure in the hilarious series for 7+ readers, from Lollies Prize winning author-illustrator Elys Dolan.
Life is going well for Rex until the school's guinea pigs suddenly vanish from the pet show. As a dinosaur-turned-PE teacher, Rex immediately gets the blame.
Determined to prove he hasn't eaten any beloved pets, Rex – along with his friends Sandra, Anish and Bigfoot – set out to solve the guinea pig mystery.
First they have to face up to the shifty city mayor, Jimmy Prigg, and then Rex must go undercover on a daring intergalactic rescue mission.
Highly illustrated throughout and laugh-out-loud funny, this hilarious series is perfect for fans of The Bolds, Dogman and Bunny & Monkey.
Elys Dolan grew up in a part of England that consists almost entirely of trees and cows, and she was named after a department store in Wimbledon. She’s never let either of these things hold her back and recently graduated from the Cambridge School of Art. She was awarded second place in the Macmillan Prize and was also short-listed for the Waterstone’s Picture This Prize. She lives in Cambridge, England.
The gorgeous Walker Books sent me the new Rex book and I’ve just sat and chuckled along to it! There’s some languages, menacing mayors, missing guinea pigs and lots of funny jokes in this! The illustrations in this are also so fun! Hope there’s more!
Rex Dinosaur is back! And this time accompanied by many guinea pigs, a dash of aliens, and a lot of fun chaos!
I was SO FREAKING HYPED (sorry that had to be in caps) when I saw this book pop up at another bookblogger’s blog. I absolutely devoured the first book when it came out and I was excited that there was finally a second book in the series!
In this one tons of chaos! We got guinea pigs disappearing (if it is isn’t Rex then who is it), a mysterious man who may not be a man, our favourite characters/cryptids are back as well and trying their best to stay hidden and have fun in the human world, our two humans who know about Rex and the others (then again everyone else in the world knows as well because hello it is that obvious or is this the same magic that works for superheroes and villains?), and there is plenty more. I was just laughing my butt off as things kept getting more funny and things just escalated more and more until it became a super galactic adventure. I just read this book in one go because it was THAT fun.
Also there are so many guinea pigs in this book, and I just snorted and laughed so much because Rex just ISN’T able to pronounce their names right. He keeps on making some hilarious new names for them. Plus, I am sorry, but I found it very funny how he compared them to his favourite foods. Oh, Rex.
I loved that aliens were added to the mix! They were quite an interesting bunch, a tad mean, or well, the boss at least was. I can understand that Linda was like HECK NOPE BYE and went off to her merry way on Earth. I loved seeing them try to figure out human language and just not getting it 100% right. Just like how Rex is trying but just cannot get all the things in the right way. I loved that they visit Earth as tourist groups, but never quite right with some details mixed up. Now I want to check out some tourist groups, haha. But that would mean having to go to Amsterdam for the full experience and that is a heck no these days.
I have to figure out the Wingdings/Alien language font. I tried in Word, but my wingdings (all three of them) are different from what the author uses, so it will be a fun challenge to figure things out! I love it when authors use code/special languages in books!
Oh, and I am glad that in the end Rex and his friends had a little chat with a certain character and give them some tips on how things were done.
OH OH OH OH, I cannot forget the ending! I need to know MORE about that! And yes, I am keeping it at that, muhahaha. I am sure everyone will be excited though.
The illustrations were, as expected because it is Elys Dolan and I love her art, a lot of fun!
There was just one thing I wasn’t a fan of and that was Maddie and the BUMCRAC peeps. Geez. Leave everyone alone.
All in all, I would highly recommend this delightful and fun book to everyone! Aliens! Dinosaurs! Cryptids! BUMCRAC (who aren’t that good but their name makes me laugh)! Read this one!
It would certainly help coming to this first sequel knowing something about why our human heroine is friends with a yeti, a dinosaur, a dodo and Nessie, if not more prehistoric/legendary beasties. But what is important is to know that some people in town don't like the way these critters have been proven to be in the community, now their disguises have been seen through. So much so that when a school fair is held, and a whole tent load of guinea pigs goes missing, it's immediately thought that Rex has eaten them all for a snack. The truth, however, is much more bonkers…
There's no end to the silliness in the plot here, but it's nice to report it's the enjoyable silliness, and not a case of being daffy for daffy's sake. Add in a blatant parody of Trump and his politics and you have a most peculiar, but still a quickly-absorbed and highly eventful, lark. It's a nice read for older primary school kids, with a sweep from humdrum back garden to, well, intergalactic guinea pigs, that does its very best to be a natural, sensible progression. I can see how it would only be improved if we'd got to know and like these characters already, and on that basis at least this is a four stars – even without the prequel to hand it's still a lively affair.
Rex’s life was perfectly normal, just like any human’s. He lived in a flat in the city with his roommate. He had a job as a PE teacher at the local school.
Today, he is in charge of the “endurance hopping” race at the school fair and has had the privilege to meet Anish’s pet guinea pig, Mr Fuzzelwuzzelwooo.
Except all the guinea pigs at the pet fair go missing AND also, Rex is not human. Being a dinosaur in disguise and in the wrong place at the right time, he’s accused of having eaten them all for a snack!
Rex and his human and creature friends go in search of Mr Fuzzelwuzzelwooo, ending up on the trail of a bunch of alien tourists (wearing I 🖤 Earth T-shirts 🤪)
“And I would like a cow juice with a single portion of bean beverage, but low-temperature, made with the solid H2O…”
“And where are the sweet grains?”
Our 7-9ers will enjoy this illustrated adventure that takes unexpected turns into the perfectly-coiffed yellow-haired mayor’s 🤔 office and onto a space ship. This is good fun!
I read this in paperback Rex Dinosaur In Disguise Undercover Alien is the second book in the series and absolutely hilarious. All children will love Rex the dinosaur, who lives in flat with his roommate. He has a job as a PE teacher. There is mayhem at the pet show as Rex takes a tumble with all the guinea pigs cages crash landing, with all the guinea pigs vanishing.
Children, what’s to look forward to, is a little mystery that is set into this adorable story!
Children from the ages of 7 to 9 years, will adore this book and all the amazing funny illustrations by author, illustrator Elys Dolan.
I do hope all schools will stock this fabulous dinosaur fiction series.
The first book is Rex Dinosaur In Disguise.
I would like to thank Walker Books for sending me this lovely children’s book to read and review.
Rex Dinosaur in Disguise: Undercover Alien is an amusing children's middle-grade read and the second book in the series.
Rex is a PE teacher, a disguised one at that but a PE teacher no less. He lives and works just like a human though he has some unusual friends who are also in disguise and live amongst us.
When the schools Guinea Pigs go missing it is up to Rex to solve the mystery of where they have gone to.
This hilarious book is filled to the brim with laugh-out-loud moments and contains some amusing illustrations too.
Young readers will enjoy the fun adventure and the mayhem that fill the pages. It is a quick read and really enjoyable. I would however suggest reading book one first as it will help this one make perfect sense.
Rated 2000 - sorry, one “climbing” (which is apparently a number with 180 zeroes) - stars! Safe to say my son really loved this one. I didn’t discover this was a sequel until halfway through the book, so I’ll try to read book one with him soon.
EDIT 22/05/25: Ezra wants to rate this 2800 stars this time around! Even though this was enjoyable the first time we read it together, it’s definitely 800 stars better with the context we gained from reading book one.