cover image How Do Dinosaurs Stay Safe?

How Do Dinosaurs Stay Safe?

Jane Yolen, illus. by Mark Teague. Scholastic/Blue Sky, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-439-24104-5

Throughout the How Do Dinosaurs series, prehistoric carnivores and herbivores have showed off some less-than-perfect behavior in modern settings. Now Yolen and Teague take the idea a bit farther: what about when a young dino (or human) is acting in a way that isn’t just “bad” but dangerous? “If anyone dares him,/ does he always try/ to jump from the rooftop/ as if he could fly?” asks Yolen as a gigantosaurus perches tentatively atop a suburban home. As always, examples of better (and, in this case, safer) actions follow, and while Teague’s illustrations generally play the situations for laughs, the book’s seriousness of purpose won’t be lost on readers. Ages 3–5. (Feb.)