Curly-haired children with tiny dinosaurs in their hair return for a beach adventure in this third picture-book series entry.

Friends Espuardo, Gage, Sabrina, and Faye are at camp, where they spend every day on the water. The counselors emphasize how everything in nature is connected and how humans must take responsibility for cleaning the oceans. During an underwater outing, the kids bring the dinosaurs in their hair along, and they take in the vast beauty of a coral reef, gorgeously captured in Hawkins’ watercolor paintings. But the friends also find trash there—as well as a shark. Spinosaurus, in Espuardo’s hair, gets ready to defend the kids, but it turns out it’s the shark who’s in danger, as he’s caught in an old fishing net. After the dinosaur helps the fish, the kids collect garbage along the beach, saying, “It’s our job to protect our friends’ reef.” As in previous installments, Rose-Vallee’s rhyming text flows smoothly, with appropriately challenging vocabulary for emergent readers (angst, aquatic). Hawkins, who’s new to the series, balances realistic paintings of reef life with expressively goofy dinosaurs; despite the dinos’ more cartoonish style, they never feel out of place. The real stars, though, are the four diverse children whose passion for doing what’s right unites them in a cause.

Dinosaur fun and an environmental message make this a sure winner.

The girl with impossible curls and dinosaurs that hide in them returns in this sequel from team Rose-Vallee and Matsick (Dinosaurs Living in MY HAIR!, 2015) about finding similarities among friends—and being brave when bullies are mean.

Sabrina, now in first grade, still has those uncontrollable curls; three dinosaurs have taken up residence near her bow. Classmates mock the curls of blonde Sabrina and four of her friends: Faye, Gage, Espuardo, and Chanelle. When dinosaurs fall out of Sabrina’s hair at recess, she’s worried her friends will judge, but it turns out they all have dinos of their own. Matsick’s watercolor illustrations of this group of friends are a delightful celebration of diversity. The hair in the group includes red, brown, and black, and the skin tones vary just as much; the children are as distinct as their dinosaurs, and the riot of colors is as vibrant as the kids’ imaginations. When the dinos save Sabrina from a mean bully’s pranks, she and her friends learn a powerful lesson about how to deal with bullies: “You might think that the dinosaurs / were key to our success, / but friends and self-acceptance are / the answer I profess.” Rose-Vallee’s rhyming text flows in perfect rhythm and rhyme, and her vocabulary choices are unique enough to offer a comfortable challenge for Sabrina’s fellow first-grade readers.

A great choice to highlight diverse friendships and believing in yourself—with a fun touch of dinosaurs.

In this debut rhyming picture book, Sabrina has masses of wild, curly blond hair and worries that there may be animals—like dinosaurs—living in there. 

Five-year-old Sabrina faces a tough challenge: her crazy curls are difficult to comb and manage. When her mother tells her that “Creatures could hide out there,” Sabrina starts to worry she could be right: “Underneath all this mess, / Tangled up in my hair, / What if there are dinosaurs / Living in there?” Jealous that her short-haired brother can get ready quickly, Sabrina wishes her mother were the one with the problem; still, Sabrina tries to remain calm and not worry. When the clock strikes 8:30 and it’s time to get ready for school, Sabrina goes through her daily routine: getting dressed, grabbing her pink bow, and heading to the mirror with her blue comb to try and tame her curls. “The combing and brushing / Does little to help, / Still plenty of places / To hide at my scalp. / I think I see movement / Is Mom really right? / Do dinosaurs live / In my hair out of sight?” After spotting some T. rexes, raptors, and bats living in her hair, Sabrina’s mother brushes them all out, and Sabrina and her brothers are safe to go to school. Sabrina is a funny, sweet narrator who encounters a problem many kids may have—letting their imaginations run rampant. Told in rhyme, each page of verse contains four lines that give the story a singsong quality, while Matsick’s big, colorful illustrations help kids see Sabrina’s entanglements. The authors are at work on subsequent volumes in the series, and given the warm tone of the story and its relatable main character, there’s certainly potential for more.

This charming, engaging story offers a funny look at what happens when a child’s imagination unfurls.