Bang! Boom! Roar!: A Busy Crew of Dinosaurs

PreS-Gr 1—This picture book combines favorite topics of the preschool set (trucks, dinosaurs) with ABCs, alliteration, a graphic collage of action-packed images, winning cartoon faces, humor, and an assortment of searchable items. Following endpapers that introduce 24 dinosaur friends (meat eaters noted with a steak icon and vegetarians with a banana), the text launches into rhyming couplets in an alphabetic pattern; the dinosaurs are building a masterpiece of construction. Oh, they're loud and boisterous, but dedicated to their task. The tale may be a bit contrived, yet readers will be looking at the frenetic display of detailed images on each spread. While the "experts use their elbow grease to engineer a masterpiece," children are invited to find specific items-4 cups of coffee, 43 ripe bananas, an unwrapped red lollipop-or review dinosaurs on a "high-wire hustle," all a part of the romp that results in a finished playground. The clutter here is sometimes overwhelming, but an amazing wealth of detail will keep readers occupied for hours. From a surprised, helmeted compsognathus chomping on his sandwich to 15 favorite construction tools on the final pages, this is a combination of visual entertainment and text with a multitude of uses in most libraries.—Mary Elam, Learning Media Services, Plano ISD, TX