DINOSAURS LIVING IN MY HAIR! 3

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.