Through the Looking Glass Children's Book Reviews
Ally-saurus & the First Day of School
Picture Book
For ages 5 yo 7
Sterling Children's Books, 2015 ISBN: 978-1454911791
One morning, bright and early, a mother comes into her daughter’s room to wake up her up. It is the first day of school and she doesn’t want Ally to be late. Ally, from under her covers, tells her mother that her name is Ally-saurus. When she gets dressed, Ally-saurus puts her pants on backwards so that her “dinosaur tail can stick out,” but Father makes the little girl put them on the right way round.
When Ally-saurus gets to school she tells her new teacher to call her Ally-saurus rather than just plain old Ally. At every opportunity during the morning Ally-saurus talks about dinosaurs. She eats like a dinosaur at snack time, her nameplate for her cubby is dinosaur shaped, and when they talk about the weather she says that a cloud looks like a dinosaur. She even says that the word dinosaur begins with an A even though she knows perfectly well that the word begins with a D. Ally-saurus just loves dinosaurs, but it turns out that not everyone does. Tina and her two friends like princesses not dinosaurs, and it isn’t long before Ally-saurus starts to wish that she was back at home eating lunch with her toy dinosaurs.
This delightful picture book celebrates the power of a child’s imagination. It also explores the way in which children learn how to accept each other’s differences, and how those differences make our lives richer and happier in the long run. Children will also appreciate seeing the way in which Ally-saurus and the other children manage on their first day of school.
