DINOTHESAURUS

In the fine tradition of Jack Prelutsky’s Tyrannosaurus Was a Beast, illustrated by Arnold Lobel (1988), a set of dinophile-pleasing verses penned by a poet with a rare knack for wordplay and silly rhymes finds apt visual setting fronting playful images of monsters rearing up from extinction to grin toothily at young viewers. Sandwiched between poems about the Age of Dinosaurs and its sudden end, Florian parades 18 creatures, from Pterosaurs (“They were not ptame. / They were ptenacious— / From the Ptriassic / Pto the Cretaceous.”) to T. Rex, then closes with an informative “Glossarysaurus,” plus museum and source lists. Spectacularly depicted (as is his frequent custom) on paper bags in crayon and collage, the poet’s dinos are easily recognizable despite being freely rendered and, often, semitransparent. Collage elements add to the visual excitement, often to great effect—a skeletal, iPod-sporting T. Rex prepares to chow down on a heap of cut-out dinosaur bits—and always with enormous playfulness. Children fixated on explicit gore may be left unmoved, but to everyone else this will be a dino-delight—especially when read aloud. (Picture book/poetry. 5-10)