cover image How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?

How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?

Jane Yolen, , illus. by Mark Teague. . Scholastic/Blue Sky, $15.99 (40pp) ISBN 978-0-439-24102-1

Echoing the tone and look of How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? and How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? , these collaborators' latest guide to dino etiquette offers a jaunty comedy of errors, er, table manners. In the first half, against spare backdrops with a 1950s feel, dinosaurs behave kid-pleasingly naughtily when their human parents serve them meals. As Yolen's rhyming narrative asks questions ("How does a dinosaur eat all his food? Does he burp, does he belch, or make noises quite rude?"), Teague's illustrations provide affirmative answers, comically capturing the dining dinos' antics: one is covered in spaghetti after throwing his plate into the air, another blows bubbles in his milk glass and a third lies on the floor, happily sticking beans up his nose. The tables turn in the second half, when narrative and pictures offer Miss Manners alternatives while revisiting the same prehistoric heroes. One willingly says "Please" and "Thank you" (while wearing a bib) and another "tries every new thing, at least one small bite. He makes no loud noises—that isn't polite." Young dinosaur fans will enjoy encountering novel characters here (all labeled on the endpapers), as Teague has invited an unusual array of species to this tasty feast. Ages 3-5. (Sept.)