Review: There’s a Stegosaurus on the Stairs

Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge 2016 is a weekly celebration of imaginative children’s nonfiction materials hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy.

Title: There’s a Stegosaurus on the Stairs
Author/Illustrator: Aleksei Bitskoff, Ruth Symons, Chris Jarvis
Publisher: QEB Publishing
Publication Date: 2013
Genre/Format: Nonfiction

My Two Cents: 

You can’t really go wrong with dinosaurs. Throw a T-Rex, an apatosaurus or, as in the case of today’s book, a stegosaurus, in a book, fill it with some fun facts and eye-catching illustrations, and you’ve got at least a pretty decent chance of creating a kid-pleasing nonfiction title.

How might a stegosaurus react if it was transported to the modern day? Well, it would probably either start eating someone’s lawn or get into a fight with a car, but There’s a Stegosaurus on the Stairs takes a more lighthearted approach to dinosaurs information. The friendly stegosaurus plays on a seesaw in the playground with an elephant because the two animals weigh about the same (5.5 tons, if you were curious). Poor stegosaurus would likely struggle to keep up in school with a brain about the size of a tangerine (the fact that it wouldn’t fit through the classroom doors notwithstanding), and it would likely give its mother a bunch of flowers for Mother’s Day, cut with its sharp, plant-eating beak.

This certainly isn’t the most scientific of nonfiction dinosaur texts, but it does provide a significant amount of factual information in a way that might be more accessible for little dinosaur fanatics. The illustrations are cute and cartoony, too, making this a nice book for the youngest readers or more sensitive children who might be put off by scarier, more realistic dinosaur illustrations. And really, what kid hasn’t day-dreamed about bringing a dinosaur to their birthday party so it can open a pinata with its spike tail?