DINOSAUR PARADE

Several dozen smiling, brightly patterned dinos clomp across the spreads, with their names, sizes, naming dates and other data marching below on a running footer. Halls groups them by type—Sauropods, Ornithopods, etc.—to make physical comparisons easy, and Spears adds plenty of human fellow marchers to the line of behemoths for (loose) scale. So striking are the graphics and the design that the rhyming couplets that form the primary narration almost fade entirely into the background (not such a bad thing, as they are far from distinguished: “Tough and strong in peace and war, / ‘Stay away,’ they seemed to roar”). With a group of “Mini homo sapiens,” a Dracorex hogwartsia and a “Paleontologist” (“Size varies. Term first used in 1830”) bringing up the rear, it’s a parade that won’t run out of spectators any time soon. Eye candy for younger fans. (Informational picture book. 4-8)