DINOSAUR, DINOSAUR HAD A FARM

Traditional nursery rhymes are dino-fied, from “Old MacDino Had a Farm” to “Hey, Dino Diddle.”

Most of the rhymes here simply substitute the word dino or dinosaur: “There Was a Farmer Who Had a Dog” becomes “There Was a Dino Who Had a Dog,” and the line “and in my lady’s chamber!” from “Goosey, Goosey, Gander” becomes “and in my dino’s chamber!” By and large, that’s all that has been done to make these rhymes different. The most creative redo is “Little Miss Dino,” which rewrites the text for a twist on the familiar rhyme. Otherwise, these are mostly lazy changes at best, and at worst they completely throw off the cadence (“Hickory, dickory, dock. / The mouse went up the dinosaur clock”). Rešček’s illustrations are sweet enough, with childlike, cutesy purple, orange, and green dinos. These images are fairly straightforward, though there are some nice details like the dino footprint pattern on the pajamas worn by one character, images of dinosaurs on a bedspread, and even carved cutouts on the clock. These charming illustrations aren’t enough to rescue the dull and unimaginative rhyme rewrites, though. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Not worthy of shelf space in addition to or in place of the classics.