THE LITTLEST DINOSAUR’S BIG ADVENTURE

Just the dish for pre-readers who prefer their story fare bland, this prehistoric outing follows the young ceratopsid introduced in Littlest Dinosaur (2008) on a happy ramble through a sunny meadow, then into a dark forest where he quickly overcomes his growing anxiety by helping a lost baby pteranodon find its mother—earning a free flight back to his own parents. Standing on two stubby legs and looking like a human post-toddler in a dino suit, LD provides commentary in a running internal dialogue (“It’s not fun being small in the dark. But I have the heart of a dinosaur, so I can be brave”) as he strolls through clouds of smiling butterflies and, later, past tall trees with minimally spooky faces. Just ordinary next to such memorable first outings as Jane Simmons’s Come Along, Daisy! (1998) or Martin Waddell’s Tiny’s Big Adventure, illustrated by John Lawrence (2004), this will at least give very young audiences an easy-to-follow emotional track. (Picture book. 3-5)