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?

"Rex, a chameleon, belongs to an elementary school class and lives in a bucket-size aquarium. After school each day, explains the girl narrator, 'someone gets to take Rex home,' and uses a communal classroom journal to 'write all the things Rex did on his visit.' Some students draw pictures rather than write in the journal, and Mackintosh (Aussie Nibble: Poor Fish) gives whimsical renditions of what the crayon results might look like. A boy with a pool draws smiling swimmers and a giant, scaly green foot; a girl who lives in a high-rise draws a fire-breathing Godzilla climbing the Empire State Building. When the narrator anticipates taking care of Rex for the whole weekend, she fantasizes about sitting on a Tyrannosaurus rex's head to watch a movie. Australian author Dubosarsky writes open-ended comments and questions that leave Rex's true nature up to the reader. 'Would Rex like a giant hamburger?' the narrator wonders, and Mackintosh pictures the girl with an ordinary lunch tray, Rex (as dinosaur) with a pile of paper-wrapped burgers. Dubosarsky never describes an actual chameleon, and in Mackintosh's artwork, Rex is seldom small, rainbow-hued or secretive. Instead, according to the pictures, all of the children fantasize about Rex not as a little lizard but as a dinosaur, albeit one that changes colors. Dubosarsky and Mackintosh have fun with one joke, but neglect the full range of possibilities that arise when a self-camouflaging creature meets a handful of creative children. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

URSULA DUBOSARSKY is one of Australia’s leading authors of books for children and yong adults.  She lives in Sydney.

Born in Belfast, raised in Australia, and now living in London, DAVID MACKINTOSH is a fine artist and designer, as well as an illustrator.