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Following up their bestseller How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?, Caldecott Medal winner Jane Yolen and illustrator Mark Teague have penned this instructive lesson on dinosaur health care. Each double-page spread features one enormous dinosaur looking wan and sniffly but mostly cranky, petulant, ornery, sullen, and disagreeable. The human moms and dads are visibly worried and/or frustrated by their sick dinos behaving badly. Witness the nice lady dragging her gigantic Styracosaurus out of the elevator and across the hall to the doctor's office: "What if a dinosaur goes to the doc? Does he drag all his feet till his mom is in shock?" The look on this mom's face will be familiar to anyone who's ever forcibly moved a child, who seems to have suddenly gained a million pounds, from one place to another. And of course, it turns out that dinosaurs don't misbehave when they're sick: "He drinks lots of juice, and he gets lots of rest. He's good at the doctor's, 'cause doctors know best." The rhymes are somewhat forced, especially toward the end of the book, but Teague's marvelous paintings are bright and expressive throughout. Each dinosaur is cleverly labeled, and these aren't your run-of-the-mill dinos; dinosaur-obsessed little ones will crow over Parasaurolophus, Euoplocephalus, and Tuojiangosaurus. They'll also learn a little something about how to behave when they're sick. --Jennifer Lindsay |
