DINOSAURUMPUS!

As long as there are kids, dinosaur books have less chance of extinction than the actual dinosaurs did. And thus, for the benefit of curious and expressive tykes, Mitton and Parker-Rees (Down by the Cool of the Pool, 2002, etc.) serves up yet another, albeit welcome, excursion in paleo-eurhythmics. Should this be read before or after naptime? Let’s explicate. It is to be experienced, to be stomped out in character, to be recited aloud as the language reflects reptilian excitement in sound and onomatopoeia. And Parker-Rees’s illustrations resound and bounce on a glowing color palette that has consigned earth tones to long-forgotten times. There is noise, dancing, and a sense of largeness that can only lead from the titular rumpus to a . . . nap. Despite fitting into a familiar genre, Mitton has somehow—perhaps through the rhyme, perhaps through sheer ebullience of language—tapped into a satisfying freshness that says stomping out a Dinosaurumpus is for anytime. (Picture book. 4-7)