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NEVER FOLLOW A DINOSAUR by Alex Latimer

NEVER FOLLOW A DINOSAUR

by Alex Latimer ; illustrated by Alex Latimer

Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-56145-704-5
Publisher: Peachtree

If a set of small tracks leads to a bowl of missing cat food, it must be a dinosaur, right? One with very tiny feet?

When the strange footprints lead Joe and Sally through their house and outside, the white sibs decide, based on the clues they find, that it's not only a dinosaur that left them, but one that loves music, bumped its head, loves to swim, and much more. When they get home, their preoccupied parents suggest it's not a good idea to follow a dinosaur, especially since they're extinct. Ignoring that, they set to making a dinosaur trap, and in a welcome twist, they actually meet the same creature they were imagining, one in need of help baking treats. Latimer gives his silly dinosaur some very funny expressions as it goes through imagination-bubble indignities, and the kids’ diagram of their dinosaur trap is equally chuckleworthy. Backgrounds are kept to a minimum to keep the focus on Sally and Joe’s adventure tracking down their cat-food thief. Latimer escalates the absurdity with great pacing and repetition in the text ("What if it's a hungry, heavy, swimming, dancing dinosaur with a headache, a sore foot and wings!") coupled with increasingly busy and funny illustrations.

It’s a goofy romp with a very lovable dinosaur at its center that never loses its (very small) footing.

(Picture book. 4-8)