Party Rex

PreS-Gr 2–It’s time for a posh birthday party with the dinosaur gang! In an Emily-Post-for-the-preschool-set, readers are addressed as “you” while two white siblings, one with blond hair and the other a redhead, plus dinosaur friends from other titles in this series, are together again to celebrate a birthday. A tongue-in-cheek primer on how to behave at birthday parties, Party Rex, like Idle’s Tea Rex and Sea Rex, is aimed squarely at affluent, able-bodied children. In keeping with Idle’s formula, the humor is in the dichotomy between the elegant directives issued by the narrator and the visual antics of the children and dinosaurs. Idle’s eye for form and her ability to draw movement with colored pencils shows up again in her remarkable lines and composition. This veteran’s undeniable talent for illustration remains evident, and her ability to expand representation shows growth in the last spread that encourages readers to behave how they want others to behave “at YOUR birthday party!” It’s just unfortunate that children who do not have pink skin have to wait to the very last spread to find themselves reflected in this gathering. The energy of the party scene practically bounces off the page and may remind readers of Sendak’s wild rumpus.