COUNTING DINOS

Dinosaurs get together to count legs, arms, wings, spikes, and more.

The rhymed tally starts off with a young dino named Rodrigo (properly identified, in the closing fact roundup, as an ankylosaurus) with “one tail he liked to swing for fun!” Along comes Sue (a T. Rex) with two arms and two pairs of claws, Stan (a triceratops) with three horns, and so on up to 10 little hatchlings of diverse species. In her prehistoric scenes Bianda depicts dinosaurs, early reptiles, and even a set of contemporaneous opossumlike mammals (and bumblebees flying into a wasps’ nest) in bright monochrome hues, with googly eyes and (for all the scales, horns, and toothy smiles on display) distinctly toddlerish looks. She also places large numerals in strategic spots and tucks in seed cones, ferns, comets, and other prehistoric items for more counting opportunities. Dinosaur counting exercises are far from an extinct or even endangered picture-book species but this is a particularly lively specimen, and aside from a few artistic liberties, the author and illustrator both take care to keep their dino facts straight.

Definitely has a preschooler’s number.