STEMOSAURUS

A science-loving dinosaur saves his friends.

Few have heard of Spike the Stemosaurus, who’s inquisitive and good with numbers. Small and quiet, he’s not nearly as well known as his more rambunctious pals, who enjoy wrestling, heavy lifting, and racing; Spike prefers exploring, inventing, and learning about the world. Sometimes he longs to be strong, tall, and fast, like his pals. He invents “cretaceous contraptions” to make those wishes real, but he still sees himself as “a rather weak, slightly short, kind of awkward Stemosaurus.” When a giant meteor begins hurtling to Earth one day, Spike does some mathematical calculations and concludes that its impact will be catastrophic. The other dinos are terrified, but Spike devises a solution, and together the friends build the “first-ever TERRIFIC TEAMWORK TRIASSIC TELEPORTER.” Everyone climbs aboard, and Spike sets the time machine—for 65 million years hence! Flash-forward to the present: Everyone’s aware of the Stemosaurus now. This whimsical tale will delight dinosaur fans and other science-minded kids. It celebrates friendship, cooperation, and the idea that everyone’s got strengths and talents worthy of respect—and wittily turns the meteors-killed-off-dinosaurs theory on its ear. The dynamic digital illustrations are comically appealing. Bespectacled blue Spike and the dinosaurs are adorable; background humans are diverse.

A saur-ingly fun read. Hand this to those who love dinos and all things science.