Dinosaurs and Pirates, what more could you ask for. Gary the Stegosaurus wants to be a pirate. Unfortunately he has some issues due to his body and his size. Even though he is trying to do a good job, he ends up messing things up. The illustrations were great. They were bright, colourful and humorous as well as having some hidden jokes and answers to questions in them. Watch for the nod to the Titanic Movie. At the end of the book is an questions section where you can use the page number given to find the answers hidden in the illustrations. A cute story that young children will enjoy and parents will enjoy reading to them, especially if you can do a good pirate voice. A great addition to public, school, classroom and family libraries. The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book via Netgalley. ( )

Pirates and dinosaurs....it’s a fun combination! This is a cute story.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC ( )

Two of my favorite things growing up as a child? Pirates and dinosaurs! So imagine my delight when coming across this book. For me, the T-Rex is my all time favorite, but a Stegosauraus pirate is still pretty cool. This would be a nice gift for any child that loves either of those subjects (or both!). The pictures are colorful the dinosaur cute, and the situations silly. Poor stegosaurus tries to be like the other pirates, but he’s too big, too heavy and just not built for piracy. Amusingly, he chooses a different profession at the end. After the story, the author includes a few informational pages on the dinosaur, so it isn’t just fun and games. Kids will learn a bit about the stegosaurus, such as the purpose of the plates on his back. I received a free ebook in exchange for my honest review. And honestly, this would have been a book I would have picked up for my kids. ( )

This was a fun book to read with my kids and it would definitely be perfect to have around when “Speak Like a Pirate” Day arrives.

The story wonderfully teaches a lesson on how sometimes what we dream of doing may not be possible but that’s okay because we should never stop dreaming to find the perfect fit. At the end of the story there is a fun Dino Dig where answers to the questions are hidden in the art work throughout the book. There ae also facts, discussion questions and a glossary that help turn a fun experience into an educational one as well.

The art work is vivid and perfect with the story as it really brings to life this adorable and well-intentioned dinosaur. There was plenty of humor sprinkled throughout the art like the pirate flag whose traditional skull and crossbones kept changing its expression depending on what was going on in the story. The requisite parrot who seemed to take all the mishaps at ease by finding underwear for the dino, floating on a plastic raft and drinking ‘coffee’?

My favorite was what appeared to be a nod to the Titanic movie where there was a female pirate on a raft while the guy was in the water clinging to the edge.

As a mom I had fun reading this, especially in a pirate voice which made my daughters laugh, and they enjoyed the story. It gave us a great opportunity to talk about some of the things they want to do when they grow up, what it would take to get there and what other things might they enjoy if the first turned out to be something they didn’t want to do after all.

I liked having a book that turned into an opportunity to learn more about my kids. ( )