I thought the illustrations were wonderful, colorful and really drew you into the story. The story however fell short for me.
Jimmy is at the beach with his mom, dad and sister, where he finds a special shell that talks. When he shows the shell to his family, however, the shell remains quiet.
We find out that there is a dinosaur, Danny, and his navigator, Skipper, in the shell. The family is surprised and Jimmy asks how they got in the shell, how they get out, and where are they from. Jimmy asks if Danny and Skipper can stay and his parents agree that it is a good idea.
I like how Jimmy is a polite and helpful child. I like that the story features a family that hangs out together and sits down to eat together. It was sweet and imaginative, but it didn't flow. At dinner, when they discovered Danny was in the shell there were a lot of questions, but the next thing we know they go outside to play with friends and the questions go unanswered. At the end of the book, Jimmy asks the questions again, and Danny says he will answer them some other time, but now its time for bed. I can't imagine any child asking a question and letting it go without an answer...heck my 23 year old wont leave me alone until I answer her, I know a young'un lives to ask "why" and would not let it go, sometimes even when they do get an answer they still don't let it go!!
I also received a DVD of the story. This DVD was kind of like a read along, with Carol Downing (Associate Director and Classroom Teacher of the Blossom Montessori School of the Deaf) signing beside the pages. The dvd had some staggering statistics like 93% of all deaf children are born to families with hearing parents and only 10% of them learn to communicate effectively with them. I like that the author used her book to bring this issue to the forefront and gave an alternative to deaf children to enjoy the book.
I give this a 4 out of 5 if only for the great illustration and positive examples.
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