Dino-Halloween

August 1, 2019
This salute to Halloween joins the author and illustrator's Dino-Holidays series. Rollicking rhyming verses describe all the activities that accompany the cooler, longer October nights and falling leaves. The all-dinosaur cast (in an otherwise modern, Western world) pick pumpkins and carve jack-o'-lanterns, play games at the Costume Ball, and do the Monster Mash. A visit to a haunted house strikes fear in the hearts of a few dinos (T. Rex flees), but "the others...know the spooks are just pretend." This busy spread shows the behind-the-scenes dinos wearing the costumes and animating the scary scenes. The highlights of this outing are choosing a costume and, of, course, the trick-or-treating. In both Wheeler's text and Gott's digital illustrations, the dinos have their own personalities, especially poor, indecisive Apatosaurus. While the typical sights of Halloween are here (bats, skeletons, witches, etc.), the scariest is what the Ptero Twins find in their treat bags: toothbrushes! As with the others in this series and with companion series Dino-Sports, this is best suited to an audience who knows their dinosaurs; some of the pictured dinos can be a challenge to match to the text, which often uses nicknames: Pachy, Compy, Diplo, for example. Dino lovers will be thrilled to spend a spooky holiday with their favorite cast. (Picture book. 3-8)

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