If I Had a Triceratops

by George O'Connor, George O'Connor (Illustrator)

Overview

With deft visual humor, a New York Times best-selling author-illustrator imagines how awesome it would be to have a pet triceratops living in your backyard.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a triceratops for a pet? If you had one, it would probably be your best friend. It would always want to play with you, and it would always know how you’re feeling. On dark and stormy nights, if your triceratops got scared, you could let it sleep in your room. True, a triceratops is a little on the huge side, but that just means more pet to love, and more pet to love you right back! Just imagine your very own pet triceratops running out to greet you at the end of the day. Ooof! Wouldn’t that be the best thing ever?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780763660130
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	02/10/2015
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	1,003,750
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 10.70(h) x 1.60(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, and the New York Times best-selling picture book Kapow! He considers himself a cat person, but if anyone knows where he might get a doglike triceratops, he could probably be convinced to switch up. George O’Connor lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Editorial Reviews

O'Connor…has a remarkably nimble visual intelligence. If I Had a Triceratops is amusing on its own, and together with its predecessor comprises a clever, funny allegory of the behavioral gulf between dogs and cats—and the way the owners of both remain blissfully untroubled by their pets' true, beastly natures.

The New York Times Book Review - Maria Russo

01/12/2015
Continuing to riff on the idea of kids as the proud owners of prehistoric pets, O’Connor follows If I Had a Raptor with a boy’s fantasy of life with an enormous orange triceratops of his own. It’s all about physical comedy as the boy plays fetch with the triceratops (boy tosses stick, dino returns with uprooted tree), teaches her tricks (high-fiving nearly results in an accidental squashing), and keeps her safe from things like large bones: “She could choke. (And besides, they might belong to a relative of hers.)” Larger-than-life fun for animal- and dinosaur-loving kids. Ages 3–7. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

If I Had a Triceratops” is amusing on its own, and together with its predecessor comprises a clever, funny allegory of the behavioral gulf between dogs and cats — and the way the owners of both remain blissfully untroubled by their pets’ true, beastly natures.
—The New York Times

Tongue stuffed firmly in cheek, O'Connor lets his premise go positively nuts in the pictures while keeping the text understated for maximum irony. Different dino, same goofy premise and rapturous tone. Young dog lovers will understand perfectly.
—Kirkus Reviews

Dinosaurs and fantasies about a perfect pet are both topics loaded with kid appeal, and this picture book, which combines the two, is a real charmer. ... Rendered with thick-lined pen strokes and bright watercolors, the illustrations have a cartoonlike feel that will invite peals of laughter from the younger set yet are artful, imbued with a sophistication that adults will appreciate... Prehistoric pet ownership has never been more enchanting.
—School Library Journal

The illustrations are warm and cheerful-looking, and the good mood carries through to the very end: “If I had a triceratops, I would be the luckiest kid in the world.”
—Booklist

The kids for whom this is a straight-up wishful fantasy will revel in the notion, and the book may spark discussion about other technically impossible but delightful pets.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

O’Connor has drawn these two characters with much exuberance and life by using pencil and watercolor. This book is a great companion to his first book, If I Had a Raptor, which also explores the possibilities if a young girl could have a bird-like dinosaur as a pet.
—Meridian Magazine

Larger-than-life fun for animal- and dinosaur-loving kids.
—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

12/01/2014
PreS-K—Dinosaurs and fantasies about a perfect pet are both topics loaded with kid appeal, and this picture book, which combines the two, is a real charmer. It is a companion to If I Had a Raptor (Candlewick, 2013) and follows a young boy who imagines life with an exuberant triceratops, who walks on a leash, plays fetch, and learns to sit up, roll over, and play dead. However, where O'Connor's raptor was an occasionally menacing, birdlike creature, his tongue-lolling, tail-wagging triceratops is positively cuddly, and kids will find themselves agreeing with the nameless narrator's assertion that all the work associated with owning a pet "will all be worth it when she runs out to greet me at the end of the day." Rendered with thick-lined pen strokes and bright watercolors, the illustrations have a cartoonlike feel that will invite peals of laughter from the younger set yet are artful, imbued with a sophistication that adults will appreciate: an unhappy looking dinosaur crammed into a tiny tub for a bath or attempting to cuddle up next to her owner at night. The accompanying text is appropriately understated, and pairing it with the over-the-top images makes for a hilarious combination. The young narrator veers into the quirky at times, too, letting the audience know that he would never let his pet chew on any large bones, both because of the risk of choking and because "they might belong to a relative of hers." Prehistoric pet ownership has never been more enchanting.—Mahnaz Dar, School Library Journal

School Library Journal

2014-10-22
The creator of If I Had a Raptor (2014) switches out one dino-pet for another, doggier, one."Owning a triceratops is a lot of work," observes the young narrator as he runs after his huge orange pet with a shovel, watches her "fetch" an entire uprooted tree and delivers a soapy scrub with a push broom ("No! Don't shake!"). On the other hand, she'll learn tricks, guard against burglars or "the occasional T-Rex" and (literally) bust out of the house for a joyful reunion at the end of a wearying school day. In bright, loosely drawn cartoon illustrations, O'Connor opens with the instant bonding of lad and elephant-sized ceratopsid through a pet store window and closes with a cozy clinch. In between, he shows the triceratops—lolling tongue on one end and waggy tail on the other—chasing cars, digging up (dinosaur) bones, eating homework and generally being boy's best friend. Tongue stuffed firmly in cheek, O'Connor lets his premise go positively nuts in the pictures while keeping the text understated for maximum irony. Different dino, same goofy premise and rapturous tone. Young dog lovers will understand perfectly. (Picture book. 5-8)

Kirkus Reviews