ONE-OSAURUS, TWO-OSAURUS

A Cretaceous counting rhyme leading up to a toothy 10th.

Norman’s latest outing and first collaboration with Collet-Derby is storytime and read-aloud gold, featuring as it does a tight, patterned rhyme, an artful use of page turns, and a mighty “ROAR!” midstream—not to mention lots of dinosaurs. In meter and rhyme scheme, it’s modeled after “One potato, two potato”: “One-osaurus, two-osaurus… / three-osaurus, four….” The count gathers a growing gang of “prehistoric pals” until nine have accumulated, at which point the text begins building tension with first a “dinosaur stampede!” and then four double-page spreads of anticipatory quiet as each dino hunkers down behind a number-shaped rock. Finally an enormous shadow heralds the arrival of “ten-osaurus rex!”…who makes a big, loud entrance but turns out to be (wait for it) huge of personality but physically the most diminutive dino of the lot. Rendered in a flat, serigraphic style, the dot-eyed dinosaurs of diverse type are each kitted out with some human article of clothing or accessory. The yellow ankylosaurus sports a red beret; the white apatosaurus has blue polka dots and wears a red-and-white–striped muffler. They stampede through minimalist settings stocked with great big, black numerals that wind up doing double duty, in various orientations, as hiding places for the startled playmates. What’s next? How about a closing change of game: “Simon Says-osaur!”

A dino-delight.