TYRONE O’SAURUS DREAMS

Can a T. rex pirouette and jeté on a ballet stage?

His father wants him to be a dentist, and his mother wants him to be a lawyer, but Tyrone, a big blue theropod, has a different career dream. His brother diverts him to football, but Tyrone lacks any and all gridiron skills. Then Tyrone meets Brontorina, a tremendously strong sauropod who studies ballet. She takes him to an outdoor dance studio, where he is welcomed, to join the other dinos, children, and cows. Under careful tutelage, and displaying a great talent, Tyrone has a star turn in a solo performance at the school recital. He exits the stage and the book performing a beautiful grand jeté with a perfectly elegant line. Howe presents his danseur noble as a gentle giant who persists and thus can fulfill his balletic vision. Cecil’s dappled art provides a humorous contrast between the hefty dinosaurs and the stick-figure humans. His choice of colors for the dinos—textured blue for Tyrone and a bright orange for Brontorina—helps them fill the pages to overflowing. Tyrone’s softly edged outline, so dramatically unlike his prehistoric ancestors’, gives him definite cuddly appeal. Brontorina first appeared in her own eponymous tale (2010), in which she made it quite clear that dinosaurs need outdoor studios.

Yes, dreams can come true—even if you are a dancing dinosaur.