Rex

by Ursula Dubosarsky, David Mackintosh (Illustrator)

Rex, a tiny chameleon, is the class pet. Every day someone gets to take him home, along with a notebook for recording his adventures. How cool is that?
But what's really cool about Rex--the book--is that those exploits are depicted as though each classmate has actually done the artwork. In the course of 32 pages, Rex manages to go for a swim, fall out of a window, and get dressed up as Malibu Barbie. And at the end, readers are encouraged to invent their own adventures with Rex. . . .
How cool is that?

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Animals, School, Fiction, Realistic Fiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Ursula Dubosarsky is an award-winning author of numerous books for children and young adults. About The Golden Day, her first book with Candlewick Press, she says, "The little girls watch, wonder, respond, change, and grow — and then their childhood is gone, forever. This element of the story, I suppose, is at least partly autobiographical. But, as I say — all of our teachers come home safe and sound in the end." Ursula Dubosarsky lives in Australia.

Reviews

[Jack Kirby and the X-man · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rex is a chameleon, a school class pet. Rex gets to go home with one student each night, and his adventures are recorded in a exercise book. The kids of course imagine Rex is a huge dinosaur.

Acceptable but pretty predictable.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cute premise. The illustrations done in the students' style delight me. The illustrations of the students nauseate me.

[Mauricio-Edith Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is very nice for kindergarten and maybe grade one when they start reading but no more than that grade, it would be too short for older children but overall it was really nice.

[Lolo Onda · Rating 5 out of 5]

My 3rd and 4th grade students loved this book. It was honestly a bit too short and sweet for a our liking, but a cute book none the less!

[Ashleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rex is a chameleon, and he is not an ordinary chameleon he is a class pet. Every student gets to take Rex home and record the adventure inside his journal. The story is excerpts from Rex's journal from the students perspective. Rex goes swimming, becomes a scary monster, gets dressed up like barbie, and even falls out of a window. But Rex's most exciting adventure is yet to come and that's his adventure with you!

The illustrations in Rex are the kids drawing from the journal and take up an entire page. They draw you in and make the reader feel apart of each students adventure with Rex. The text sounds 100% like an elementary student wrote it, making the reader feel even more apart of the class. Rex reminds me of my class pet, our hermit crab. Just like the students in the story we got to take the crab home and record what we did inside a journal. Some stories were a little more far fetched than others but hey, that's what happens in third grade right?

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rex, a lizard and the class pet, gets to travel home with each of the students. They must care for him, but also make an entry in the class book about what they did together. In these entries the little lizard lives up to his BIG name. Overall, a cute story and works for kids on many subjects; pets, writing, school...

[Sandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rex is the class pet and students take turns taking Rex home for the night, but they must either write or draw what what Rex did while he was home with each student. This cute book with colorful illustrations shows how imaginative young kids can be, especially if they got to take the class pet iguana home.

[8feetahead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story about a class pet feature childrens' artwork showing his adventures in their homes.

[Foxytocin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely geared at first graders.......most especially aimed at very visual, creativie children.

[Dee-Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting format, in that it showed pictures ? drawn by children of their perception of what Rex the lizard did when he came to their house.

[Maxwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

funny and cute illustrations

[Thia]

pets

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story about a class pet. Although tiny, each of the children imagine him as giant.