Overall, a fun and entertaining read. Similar to Don’t Eat the Teacher!, this book describes a little T-Rex’s first few days of school and how she struggles to make friends.

First off, I liked that the T-Rex was a girl. I feel like so many children’s books features dinosaurs (especially carnivores like the T-Rex) as male. It’s a little thing, but it’s nice to see some representation here.

Secondly, the illustrations are great. Very funny. I loved the detail. Nice touch with the ewww factor (i.e. stream of drool when Penelope eats another student). Gross, but funny.

I actually liked the story itself better than the shark-based Don’t Eat the Teacher!. This one does an amazing job of switching perspectives. A creative solution to teach Penelope why the other kids don’t want to be her friend and what she can do to be a better friend to them. Very good.

The only thing I didn’t like was the whole ponies-are-her-favorite-animal-thing “because ponies are delicious”. Yes, it is meant to be funny and is echoed later in the book about children and dinosaurs, but it might be a little much for literal readers. Even as an adult, I was plagued with images of bloody ponies when reading this. Obviously, that was not the intention of the author, but every time ponies popped up in the book after that, I felt a little queasy. Again, I know it is meant to be funny, but I can definitely see my literal child self being horrified by that sentence. Maybe skip that line for very sensitive children.

Overall, an entertaining read with fun illustrations and a great look at taking others perspectives.

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