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If I Had a Raptor

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If I Had a Raptor

Hardcover

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Hardcover
$15.99

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Overview

A spunky and imaginative little girl dreams of the best pet ever — a fuzzy baby raptor to snuggle.

Our heroine can’t think of anything better than bringing home a baby raptor — all teensy and tiny, fluffy and funny. It would cuddle and play, stalk birds and dust bunnies, and curl up on laps. In short, it would be the perfect pet! Readers may notice striking similarities between the raptor’s behavior and that of a more common house pet. But whether their first love is dinosaurs or kittens, little people with big imaginations will definitely warm to this perfect picture book.

Product Details
About the Author

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763660123
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	05/13/2014
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	450,312
Product dimensions:	10.90(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.50(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

George O’Connor is the creator of several children’s books, including the New York Times best-selling Olympians series, retellings of Greek myths in comic form. About If I Had a Raptor, he says, "Someone smarter than me once remarked that if your cat was a little bigger and you were a little bit smaller, it would eat you. That comparison informed my dino ization of the house cat in If I Had a Raptor." George O’Connor lives (with his clawed and clever cat) in Brooklyn.

From the B&N Reads Blog

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Editorial Reviews

★ 03/17/2014
’Twas ever thus: a baby critter seems like the perfect pet, but then it keeps growing and things get... awkward. It’s especially true with O’Connor’s theoretical raptor, who goes from “teensy and tiny and funny and fluffy” to a fierce predator with alarming green eyes who, in the right mood, might consider its seemingly oblivious owner a potential meal. A master cartoonist who strikes an ideal balance between visual sophistication and warmth, O’Connor (the Olympians series) does wonderful things with the gap between the hopes and dreams of the narrator, a small girl with wonderfully expressive pigtails, and the reality of pet ownership. “No matter how late she stays up,” says the girl, “my raptor would wake me up nice and early.” The picture tells another story: the alarm clock reads 4:36, and the girl is reluctantly roused from her sleep by the now full-size raptor, who tears at the blankets, catlike, with some ferocious-looking claws. Love does conquer all—although it’s salubrious for both parties that the raptor wears a large and noisy bell around its neck. Ages 3–7. (May)

Publishers Weekly

A master cartoonist who strikes an ideal balance between visual sophistication and warmth, O’Connor does wonderful things with the gap between the hopes and dreams of the narrator, a small girl with wonderfully expressive pigtails, and the reality of pet ownership.
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

In a switcheroo that even catless readers will spot immediately, O’Connor opens with a small girl sporting a winsome smile and big, scribbly hair—crouching next to a carton labeled “Free Raptors.” Looking in the clean and simple illustrations like a blue dust mop with big eyes (and impressive claws), one “teensy and tiny” selection is carried home. ... The besotted little girl is just about as adorable as her raptor, with two enormous pom-pom ponytails framing her dark face. So cute. Who wouldn’t want one?
—Kirkus Reviews

The roundly cartoonish illustrations, thick and loose pencil outlines and filled in with bright, textured watercolors on glossy paper, show off the similarities [between the raptor and a cat]. The blue, feathered raptor—a ball of fluff as a baby—grows up to curl its tail felinely around itself as it snuggles on the laundry and shine its dinner-plate eyes at night as its owner gets a glass of water. Though the most giggles will come from older kids who get the conceit in the modest comparison, even youngest ones who would thrill at the idea of a dinosaur pet will take to a storytime sharing of this imaginative tale.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

This story is a welcome addition to the dinosaur-as-pet genre... The earnest text is perfectly complemented by colorful pencil and watercolor cartoon illustrations, which show the joys and challenges of caring for a pet. ... Readers will appreciate the similarities between the impractical dino and more realistic animal pets, like cats or dogs. The text is lively and simple enough to make a great read-aloud.
—School Library Journal

With pictures and words that are at odds with one another, master cartoonist O'Connor imbues a potentially frightening situation with hilarity and warmth.
—East Bay Express

From the Publisher

04/01/2014
PreS-K—This story is a welcome addition to the dinosaur-as-pet genre, in which a girl imagines all of the fun she would have with a dinosaur of her very own. In her imagination, the birdlike dino she plucks out of a box marked "Free Raptors" starts out "teensy and tiny." The creature is able to hide all over the house, so a bell is attached to the little predator's collar. From raptor feedings to nail clippings and hunting prey, the girl imagines that life with her own raptor "would be the best thing ever." The protagonist has the charming obliviousness of a young child, as she hug-strangles her pet and treats the dinosaur like a lapdog, even when "Dinah" outgrows her lap and even the chair. The earnest text is perfectly complemented by colorful pencil and watercolor cartoon illustrations, which show the joys and challenges of caring for a pet. Dinosaur facts are embedded into the story, such as a velociraptor's impressive night vision—which the young owner mentions she doesn't possess, evidenced as she steps on a startled Dinah's tail in the dark. Readers will appreciate the similarities between the impractical dino and more realistic animal pets, like cats or dogs. The text is lively and simple enough to make a great read-aloud. O'Connor's charming protagonist is an African American girl, a fact that is not integral to the story but simply wonderful for readers to see. A fun story for any dinosaur fan.—Marian McLeod, Convent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich, CT

School Library Journal

2014-02-12
Who wouldn't love to have an adorable, little (at first, anyway), fuzzy pet around the house? In a switcheroo that even catless readers will spot immediately, O'Connor opens with a small girl sporting a winsome smile and big, scribbly hair—crouching next to a carton labeled "Free Raptors." Looking in the clean and simple illustrations like a blue dust mop with big eyes (and impressive claws), one "teensy and tiny" selection is carried home. There, it is lavished with affection as it sleeps all day, chases around madly at night and, even after growing to the size of a wolfhound, jumps on the bed early in the morning. And it remains, despite the way it steadily regards the oblivious young narrator with the same intent, inscrutable expression bestowed on birds temptingly perched outside the window, a hug-worthy "best thing ever." The besotted little girl is just about as adorable as her raptor, with two enormous pom-pom ponytails framing her dark face. So cute. Who wouldn't want one? (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews

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