A Dinosaur Ate My Sister Written by Pooja Puri. Reviewed by Malachi, Age 10

I REALLY liked this book! I read it during the half-term holiday whenever I had a spare moment, even when I was too tired to read it, after fun days on the beach body boarding in Cornwall! I kept wanting to find out what would happen next.

The two main characters in the book are great – Esha and Broccoli. Esha is a brave, clever and funny genius inventor and Broccoli is a VERY clever reptile geek who is also a scaredy-cat. It made me laugh about how scared he gets about things.

The book is about the two of them ending up in the cretaceous age (the age of the dinosaurs) trying to rescue Esha’s big sister, after inventing their own time machine. It is told in journal form, with Esha writing the journal and Broccoli adding extra notes at times (when he doesn’t agree with what Esha writes)!

I liked the style of how the book was written in the first person, as well as the doodles and black and white pictures. It reminded me of the style of the ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ by Jeff Kinney.

I love designing and inventing things and going on adventures which this book was all about. Now that I have written this review I better get back to designing my own time machine!

Q & A

Malachi had a couple off questions for Pooja and was delighted when she replied. Here is their conversation:

Question 1/ Do you like inventing things…if so what is the best thing you’ve made?

Answer 1/ I do like inventing things! When I was younger, I would often carry out experiments at home – from discovering the peculiar properties of magic sand to investigating the explosivity of fizzy drinks, I always liked finding out how things work. The best thing I’ve ever made is an exploding volcano but my absolutely favourite things to invent are words and stories. I think there is a very special magic in inventing a story and sharing it with someone else. Stories, for me, make the world go round.

Question 2/ Will there be a sequel to the story?
(I’ve just written a book, and I’m already thinking about what I can write about next. My first book is all about my colour blindness and I hope that it will help other people to understand this common physical condition, so they will be able to support people like me. The book can be ordered online from Waterstones)

Answer 2/ Wow. That’s incredible – well done!
I’m currently working on the sequel to A Dinosaur Ate My Sister. It’s very exciting because this is my first time writing a sequel. At first, I wasn’t entirely sure what to put into the next book, so I took some time to collect ideas. When I’m thinking about what to write next, I often like to start with an ‘ideas board’ which I fill with many different things, including lots of doodles and pictures. I find this is a really helpful way to kickstart my imagination and get some SPINGLY TINGLY inspiration. I’m hoping to make the sequel to A Dinosaur Ate My Sister even more bonkers than the first…watch this space!