Vacation's Over!

PreS-Gr 2—After vacationing in space for a few million years, the creatures once thought to be extinct return home. Cartoon-style, digitally enhanced paintings show a variety of dinosaurs catching up on laundry, mowing an overgrown lawn, developing photos, and buying school supplies. However, the dinosaurs also need to adapt to challenges of the modern world: the temptation to eat humans, the Great Wall that blocks access to a portable dinosaur toilet, and a petrified pet at home in the cave. This strange mix of reality and fantasy concludes with a serene spread in which a dinosaur peacefully snores while dreaming of his next vacation. If there was an ironic intent in the text ("Good to have you back home again"), it may be lost on children who see a skeptical, even fearful pet dog, trapped under the slumbering Rex's claws. While avid dinosaur fans may appreciate the wacky scenarios, most would be better served by a more successful melding of past and present, such as Chris Gall's Dinotrux (Little, Brown, 2009).—Julie R. Ranelli, Queen Anne's County Free Library, Stevensville, MD