G-Rex
By Teri Daniels
Illustrated by Tracey Campbell Pearson
2000
Synopsis
A big Brother is big trouble for Gregory. Mark is twice Gregory's age and twice his size. He sleeps in the best bed, and is forever hogging the remote control. Worse than that, Mark is big enough to dunk a basketball, all by himself. And that stinks! But one evening, when Gregory sinks his teeth into a piece of meat, something remarkable happens. His teeth grow sharp. A powerful tail sprouts. Little Gregory is gone-replaced by a towering dinosaur who can reach the basketball hoop with ease! Big, carnivorous G-Rex turns his household topsy-turvy. He breaks the rules, rules the roost, and wipes the neighborhood stores out of meat. Illustrated with ferociously funny pictures, this hearty adventure is about the thrills of being big and the unexpected pleasures of being small.
Excerpt
One night Mom served steak, Mark’s favorite. Gregory pictured
hooves on it. If only the meat would jump off his plate and run
back to the butcher.
Mom bit into a piece. “Delicious," she said, smiling.
“Have some,” said Dad. "Don’t you want to get big like Mark?"
Gregory clenched his fork. He didn't want to get big like Mark. He
wanted to get bigger.
Reviews and Recognition
SLJ: “Pearson’s zany artwork races across the pages with humorous details of chaotic family life, and readers will readily see that G-Rex’s threat to eat his brother is part of the fun, not a cause for alarm...Tie-ins with emotions and dealing with older siblings are obvious, but children will love the power trip. A good companion to Patricia Polacco’s My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother.”
First Coast Parent: “Oh Brother! Six-year-old Gregory has to put up with his pain-in-the-neck big brother Mark, who is twice Gregory’s age and twice his size, hogging the best bed and the remote control. But revenge is sweet. Gregory takes a bite out of a steak, and shazam! No more little boy. He’s now a towering dinosaur. He has a great time gobbling up all the meat in town, but then, Gregory finds being big isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Being small isn’t bad after all.”
The Horn Book: "Fed up with being Mark's little brother, Gregory turns into G-Rex, an obstreperous dinosaur who drives his family away. However, Gregory misses his brother and regrets breaking mark's trophy, so he changes back into a boy, and things improve between the brothers... Energetic watercolors depict G-Rex's antics."