A BOY WANTS A DINOSAUR
by Hiawyn Oram & illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura
``A boy wants...a boy should have...,'' asserts Grandfather, and takes him to the four-story, glass-encased, dinosaur-shaped Dino-Store to choose one. Like Lynd Ward's prototypical bear, this pet is too big and too hungry, causing neighborhood mayhem; but unlike Ward's Johnny, this boy awakes from a dream, realizing that a rabbit would be better. Oram tells her familiar tale with imagination and dry wit, nicely matched in the energetically comic illustrations: these dinosaurs have real style and charm. (Picture book. 4-8)