We Don't Eat Our ClassmatesReview posted February 26, 2019.
Disney Hyperion, 2018. 40 pages.
Starred Review
Review written June 20, 2018 from library book
2018 Cybils Award Winner
2017 Sonderbooks Stand-out:
#1 Picture Books - Silly Fun
Before I looked at the copy of this book that had come to the library for me, I heard my co-worker laughing over it in the next cubicle. We ended up getting everyone else in that section of the office to read it. The tone and pictures are brilliant.
I’ll give a little taste, though you really need to check this book out to see the pictures that go with it. By the way, there’s a picture of Penelope on the title page saying, “Hey kids! You will never be eaten by a T. rex. They are extinct. I promise!”
The book begins:
Penelope Rex was nervous. It’s not every day a little T. rex starts school.
She’s worried whether her classmates will be nice and how many teeth they will have. But when she gets to school:
Penelope Rex was very surprised to find out that all of her classmates were CHILDREN!
So she ate them.
Because children are delicious.
“Penelope Rex!” said Mrs. Noodleman,
“WE DON’T EAT OUR CLASSMATES! Please spit them out at once.”
So she did.
The picture of the angry children covered in drool and digestive juices is delightfully disgusting.
More pictures as Penelope tries to make friends show things like waiting at the bottom of the slide – with her mouth open. Penelope starts to notice that the other kids don’t want to get near her.
No problems-at-school book would be complete without a conversation with the parents.
When she got home, her dad asked about her first day of school.
“I didn’t make any friends!” Penelope cried. “None of the children wanted to play with me!”
“Penelope Rex,” her father asked, “did you eat your classmates?”
“Well . . . maybe sort of just a little bit.”
“Sometimes it’s hard to make friends,” said her dad. “Especially if you eat them.”
“You see, Penelope, children are the same as us on the inside. Just tastier.”
The next day, a lesson comes for Penelope in an unexpected way.
This book is too much fun! In fact, I’m sad that it came in one week after we finished booktalking this year. It’s already going on my list for next year. Very silly. Very fun. There’s nothing quite like a picture book that makes you laugh out loud.