Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp (by Carol Diggory Shields)

Give credit to Carol Shields for putting a little music into some mighty daunting scientific terminology: the proper names of dinosaurs. Who would have ever thought that duckbill and supersaurus would have ever sounded so sweet, or that there even existed a rhyme for late Cretaceous? For those who will be reading this book aloud, be forewarned: Give it a preliminary reading so as not to break the flow of the verse by stumbling over plesiosaurs and Cenozoic.

Beyond the fantastical coloration Scott Nash has bestowed on the dinosaurs, he has given each a distinct personality that captures their notable characteristics. There are lots of smiles here, and big round eyes, but pentaceratops has his five horns and diplodocus looks like she belongs in a swamp.