Book Review | The Voyage of Turtle Rex by Kyle Cyrus

The Voyage of Turtle Rex is a picture book written and illustrated by Kyle Cyrus.

Book Description

Sploosh! Fizz! Swish! The prehistoric ocean is a dangerous place for a baby sea turtle. But after she emerges from her egg, the treacherous waters are her goal. Swimming through the swirling waves and dodging larger sea creatures, she finds a resting place deep below. There she waits, until she grows into the majestic sea turtle that returns to the sand to lay her eggs and begin the cycle again.

This journey of a small creature in the oceanic world of the dinosaurs is a perfect mix of scientific integrity and dramatic storytelling.

Book Review

"Deep in the dunes of a long-ago shore, the leathery shell of a turtle egg tore."

I always love full color, full spread picture books. The Voyage of Turtle Rex has really great artwork. It's pretty dark and even menacing for a picture book, but that's more my cup of tea (and my 6 year old's really) so we loved it.

The Voyage of Turtle Rex is about the life of an Archelon sea turtle and the different dinosaurs she would have encountered along her journey.

This is a great book for kids who love dinosaurs. From the first pages, the sea turtle is on the beach with land dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus Rex. Once she makes it into the ocean she encounters dinosaurs like Mosasaur and Plesiosaur. It's a pretty epic tale that finds her back on the beach laying eggs and showcasing the circle of life.

"A primeval beach was a spine-tingling sight. She hid in the sand. She waited for night . . ."

As moving of a tale as it is, The Voyage of Turtle Rex is also kind of a downer. All of the featured animals are now extinct, and the sea turtles themselves are headed that way thanks to man. It's a realistic view and awareness is important, but it sure can bring down story time.

Even though you might get bummed a bit, The Voyage of Turtle Rex is a great picture book with lots of facts about sea turtles and lots of different dinosaurs to meet along the way. Kyle Cyrus has written and illustrated several other picture books that are definitely going on our to be read list (including Tadpole Rex which looks quite similar to this one).

7/10: Recommended Read

Book Review | Santa Duck by David Milgrim

Santa Duck is a picture book written and illustrated by David Milgrim.

Book Description

Nicholas Duck loves Christmas, and he is happy to try on the new Santa hat that's mysteriously delivered to his house. But when his friends see him and immediately launch into their Christmas lists, he doesn't know what to do . . . until he runs into Santa himself.

I read a lot of Christmas books. My 7 year old brings home at least one Christmas book a week the entire year with the exception of one or two Halloween books that pull him away from all things Christmas. I can say without hesitation: there are a lot of strange Christmas books out there. The Christmas books that usually fall short for me are the ones that suffer from being too original.

David Milgrim's Santa Duck manages to blend cute Christmas traditions with an original story.

In Santa Duck, Nicholas Duck sets out to find Santa before it's too late to submit his Christmas wishlist. As he's heading out he finds a present on his doorstep. "Whoa, baby!" Thus begins the hilarious dialogue in Milgrim's illustrations.

The present contains a Santa coat and hat. At first, Nicholas is very happy to have been given such a wonderful gift.

As Nicholas goes in search of Santa, every animal he sees believes him to be Santa Duck. He becomes increasingly frustrated as each animal recites their long Christmas wishlists.

The genius of this book is the dialogue bubbles between the animals. I wasn't a huge fan of the storyline between Nicholas and Santa. I wanted there to be more of a point as to why Nicholas was chosen to help Santa gather Christmas lists, but the humor amongst the animals more than made up for it. My kids and I had a lot of laughs. Santa Duck also embraces the idea that getting great gifts is awesome.

Even though I categorize Santa Duck with some of the other strange Christmas books we've read, I recommend it for the laughs alone. It's a fun read.

7/10: Recommended Read