Tiny T. Rex and the Impossible Hug

Cuddly dinosaurs – this will be popular!  Tiny T. Rex’s friend Pointy, a stegosaurus, is sad and doesn’t want to play. Tiny’s research tells him that one way to make someone feel better is to give them a hug, but he has very tiny arms, so that’s going to be difficult. He looks for help, but his Father thinks Math (the only Americanism in this book) might be more helpful. Tiny knows that Pointy does not like Math, and that happiness cannot be calculated on a blackboard. His aunt suggests balance and freshly squeezed cucumber juice, and his mother tells him that he is kind and creative and it really doesn’t matter if he can’t hug. His brother and sister are playing table tennis and tell him that practice is the answer, and that he should plan ahead. A double page series of sketches of the ways in which Tiny could plan to avoid Pointy’s spines is rather fun, and off he goes to practice. Hugging an ice cream cone proves messy, and hugging a cactus is definitely a bad idea.  Clutching what looks like a tree, Tiny finds himself airborne with a pterodactyl, and everything below looks tiny: he could hug anything he wants. The reader turns the page sideways as he falls down, down, down…. and lands on Pointy’s head. He explains how he has practiced, and tells Pointy that he is his very best friend so he wants to do his best for him. Pointy is very grateful to have his head hugged, ‘the biggest hug ever’, and off they go to play together.

The dinosaurs are very cute with large squarish heads and huge eyes, so not at all scary – in fact they’re not drawn to scale, as the ice cream cone is only slightly smaller than Tiny, and Mother can sit at what looks a fairly normal desk. The colours are bright and attractive, and this is a lovely heart-warming story for young dinosaur fans.