Book Review: T. Veg: The Story of a Carrot-Crunching Dinosaur

Abrams Books for Young Readers sent me T. Veg: The Story of a Carrot-Crunching Dinosaur written by Smriti Prasadam-Halls and illustrated by Katherina Manolessou to review.
“Reginald the T. Rex had a fierce and mighty roar!” He also happened to be a vegetarian T. Rex, choosing broccoli, beans, grapes, and greens. This is an interesting take on being a vegetarian – being different from his family and friends. There are few picture books about being vegetarian and I like how accessible this story is for young children – kids love dinos!

The story itself has a great rhyme and rhythm to it. I love rhyming books – they are so fun to read out loud. There was just one stanza that tripped me up, and it happens regularly in picture books. The word again being used to rhyme with games – and it may all depend on how you pronounce again, but it’s something that tripped me up the first time I read through the story.

The illustrations are bright and bold with pinks, oranges, greens and reds. The illustrator is also a printmaker which can be seen in the illustrators with print-like layers of colors which makes for very busy and exciting illustrations that would make for great conversation with children about food choice, healthy eating and what it means to be a friend.