Tiny T. Rex and the Perfect Valentine

December 21, 2020
This board book starring the pint-size, short-armed protagonist of the eponymous picture book series finds Tiny T. Rex with another dilemma. Tiny wants to make a valentine for best friend Pointy, a coral-colored stegosaurus. After all, it’s “the best way to show how BIG your heart feels for someone,” Tiny informs the audience in first-person perspective. But when Tiny wheels out red paint, the can tips all over the teeny theropod, and an idea involving glitter results in similar chaos. Undeterred, Tiny tries again and again, until finally: “The only thing I have made for Pointy is a very big, very messy... mess,” Tiny admits, as Fleck’s charming art shows the dinosaur in a pile of glitter, covered in paper hearts, glue, springs, and scraps. But Pointy, of course, is not disappointed. A predictably sweet dino-centric take on a classic theme: the heart behind a gift mattering more than the gift itself. Ages 2–4.

January 8, 2021

Toddler-PreS-Growing fan favorite Tiny T. Rex is back in this sweetly earnest tale of how hard it can be to make the perfect Valentine. Spilled paint, glitter everywhere, paper rips, scissor cuts, and trouble spelling all conspire to ruin T. Rex's card for his best friend Pointy. Toddlers and preschoolers alike will relate to the struggle of making one's ideas a reality. Pointy's reaction will provide a calming reassurance that it's the thought that counts. The bright, simple illustrations highlight the wonderful mess Tiny makes and his endearing frustration. Concise text makes this perfect Valentine reading for toddler story times. VERDICT A great addition to board book collections.- Kristy Pasquariello, Westwood P.L., MA.

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2021
Even when well-intended plans go awry, sometimes "I love you" is plastered all over one's face. Tiny T. Rex wants to make the perfect valentine for friend Pointy, a stegosaurus. It's a noble ideal, but perfection is more elusive than the little theropod realized. That's the premise of this charming board book that succinctly celebrates love, friendship, aspiration, perseverance, limitations, and the notion that it's the thought that counts--especially when it's clearly reflected in effort. Like its protagonist, this book is small, but it's rich in value and works on every level. The artwork has an elegant simplicity that beautifully balances color, personality, and clever detail. A panel of Tiny designing the card in chalk on a blackboard, for example, reveals the scale of the little dino's intentions: a giant heart, ribbons, smaller hearts dangling from springs, heart-shaped balloons, and fireworks, all much larger than Tiny. The project is clearly a labor of love: Tiny sweats, tugging a bucket of paint--"Pointy's favorite color!"--but the bucket spills on the artist, not the valentine. Trying to make the card "extra fancy," Tiny is covered in glitter. Tiny rips, snips, and rerips, trying to make the perfect heart; misspells Pointy; and glues springs and hearts all over everything. When Tiny apologizes for having no valentine for Pointy, Pointy recognizes immediately that the perfect valentine is a friend like Tiny. A sweet reminder that love is best measured in actions. (Board book. 1-5)

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