TYRANNOSAURUS DRIP

With scansion firmly in hand, Donaldson pens a rhymed tale of dino-heroism perfectly complemented by Roberts’s comical cartoon scenes of toothy carnivores and trumpet-mouthed vegetarians. Foraging contentedly along the river (“And they hooted, ‘Up with rivers!’ and they hooted, ‘Up with reeds.’ / And they hooted, ‘Up with bellyfuls of juicy water weeds!’ ”) the duckbills feel safe from the nonswimming T. Rex clan (“And they shouted, ‘Up with hunting!’ and they shouted, ‘Up with war!’ / And they shouted, ‘Up with bellyfuls of duckbill dinosaur!’ ”) on the other side. But then a storm knocks down a well-placed tree that bridges the two banks. Fortunately, the toothy but dim predators have been fostering a stray duckbill—scornfully dubbed “Tyrannosaurus Drip” by his clueless fellow nestlings—who rises to his own species’s defense and, thanks to some quick thinking, tricks the T. Rexes into a soggy retreat. Holding firmly to the courage of his vegetarian convictions, T. Drip is definitely a dino worth hooting over. (Picture book. 6-8)