Never Follow a Dinosaur
Written and Illustrated by Alex Latimer
In the best traditions of The House that Jack Built and I Met a Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, this cute and funny tale considers what could happen if the tracks two kids find belong to a dinosaur. With each clue Joe and Sally find, they add details about what the dinosaur is up to. An empty cat food bowl suggests a hungry dinosaur. Deep tracks suggest a hungry, heavy dinosaur. Tracks across the swimming pool must mean a hungry, heavy, swimming dinosaur. By the time they find the dinosaur, it has become a hungry, heavy, swimming, dancing dinosaur with a headache and a sore foot and wings. They plan a dinosaur trap, but the reader knows that won’t work. Anyway, the one thing the kids don’t discern from the clues is that it’s also a friendly dinosaur who needs help to bake cakes.
Latimer’s colorful illustrations make the story even more amusing. Willoughby, the cat, follows them on every page. Each child hangs onto a favorite toy throughout.
Second graders can read much of this book independently, but it’s a very entertaining read aloud and would be great with a whole classroom of even younger kids.
Title: Never Follow a Dinosaur- Author/Illustrator: Alex Latimer
- Publisher: Peachtree Publishers, September 1, 2016
- Reviewer: Sue Poduska
- Format: Hardcover, 32 pages
- Grade Level: K to 3
- Genre: Picture Book, Humor
- ISBN: 978-1-56145-704-5
