DINOSAUR SURPRISE

Things aren’t always as they seem in this inventive gallery of dinosaurs in disguise.

Those caregivers who remember Mad magazine’s Fold-Ins will appreciate the central device of this fun and colorful board book. In Mad, when a large illustration of a seemingly ordinary scene was folded on the dotted lines, the folded elements came together to create a new picture illustrating the punchline to the joke. In this book, unfolding a seemingly innocuous picture reveals a bevy of dinosaurs to delight dinophiles of all ages. “Look,” opens the text, “isn’t that a beautiful butterfly?” But once readers pull out the accordion-folded page they see: “No, that’s a Pteranodon.” A page of text on verso faces a very nonthreatening image on recto until little readers extend the folded pages full length, revealing the hidden reptiles. “Oh no, it’s a spider! / Wait, it’s a Tyrannosaurus Rex…Run!” The text and the accompanying reveals lend themselves to call-and-response readings and squeals of laughter. The artwork is cartoonish and decidedly nonthreatening; some dinosaurs are more recognizable than others. The book scores points with an eclectic mix of dinosaurs, including some fairly obscure creatures—Kronosaurus, Parasaurolophus, and Europlocephalus, for instance—with points deducted for depicting Triceratops with a double row of spikes on its back and without the essential third horn on its beak by which it gets its name.

Interactive, prehistoric fun for the whole family.