cover image Patrick's Dinosaurs on the Internet

Patrick's Dinosaurs on the Internet

Carol Carrick. Clarion Books, $16 (32pp) ISBN 978-0-395-50949-4

Carrick created Patrick's Dinosaurs and its sequel with her late husband, illustrator Donald Carrick. While those books featured realistic-looking dinosaurs in impossible settings, Milgrim (Dog Brain; Cows Can't Fly) doodles these dinos--they are as whimsical as their surroundings. Patrick's musing at the close of What Happened to Patrick's Dinosaurs?--that the prehistoric animals ""built a big spaceship and left""--proves to be true, as he discovers during a chat with an extraterrestrial dinosaur via an Internet link. His brother, Hank, nods off to sleep, but Patrick is mesmerized by his starry screensaver. Suddenly, ""the freckled face of a dinosaur"" appears on the screen. The roly-poly dino wears a pair of purple wraparound sunglasses. ""I'll be there soon,"" he says and promptly arrives at the window in a spaceship. He introduces himself as Flato (""It rhymes with Play-Doh"") and whisks Patrick off to a planet with a welcoming committee of dinosaurs. Patrick romps among the herbivores before returning home. Patrick's latest adventure is purely entertaining fare. Young technophiles won't learn a thing about real dinos, software or outer space, but they will be entertained. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)