T. REX ON TOUR

The correspondence begun in Dear Dinosaur (2017) between young Max and his reptilian pal continues as the museum sends a group of dinos on a world tour.

In the exchange of brief notes and letters—all, except one email, handwritten, some on pasted-on folded sheets or postal cards—Rex reports from a jungle, a city, and other generic, unspecified locations. Max responds with dinosaur facts, good wishes, and, when Rex admits to a funny feeling in his tummy that Max diagnoses as homesickness, a plush bunny. Around these missives Strathie fills in the time between each letter’s dispatch and arrival with narrative bits, including conversations between Max and his parents. At the other end, in bright cartoon illustrations, O’Byrne likewise adds snapshots showing the fleshed-out prehistoric peregrinators and their human chaperone engaged in such touristic activities as hanging out at a beach, ice skating in an urban park (amid human skaters of diverse hue), meeting a startled-looking modern lizard, and passing through airport security. At the tour’s end Max rushes into the museum to present his reinstalled friend with a hand-drawn “welcome back” card: “Dinopals Forever! ROOOAAARRR!” Max is biracial, with a brown-skinned dad and white-presenting mom.

A warm if, mediawise anyway, rather quaint epistolary relationship.