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DINOTHESAURUS: PREHISTORIC POEMS AND PAINTINGS

Page history last edited by RichiesPicks 14 years, 7 months ago

15 July 2009 DINOTHESAURUS: PREHISTORIC POEMS AND PAINTINGS by Douglas Florian, Atheneum, March 2009, 48p., ISBN: 978--1-4169-7978-4

 

Which geologic period came first: the Jurassic, the Cretaceous, or the Triassic? I could not have told you last week, but thanks to reading Douglas Florian's DINOTHESAURUS I have discovered a fun way to remember:

 

"The dinosaurs

First lived outdoors

During the time Triassic.

While most died out,

Some came about

Later in the Jurassic.

Then they evolved,

As Earth revolved,

In times known as Cretaceous.

But now indoors

Great dinosaurs

Fill museum halls, spacious."

 

Accompanying this dino-poem on a two-page spread (the first of twenty) is a hysterically funny illustration of a window-filled museum with dinosaurs craning their heads out in places and skeletal parts visible in other places. Douglas Florian has created these lots-to-look-at illustrations with "gouache, collage, colored pencils, stencils, dinosaur dust, and rubber stamps on primed brown paper bags." I suspect that sharing and explaining THAT knowledge about picturebook illustrative technique will inspire some dino-mighty art projects.

And while I'm not by any means suggesting that 86-year old Ashley Bryan is a dinosaur, just because I'm dragging his name into this review, but Ashley totally inspired me the other night at this year's Newbery Caldecott banquet with the rousing call-and-response chants of poems he led during his Laura Ingalls Wilder Award acceptance speech. In similar fashion, one can take any of Douglas Florian's poems from DINOTHESAURUS and do similar call-and-response chants with kids. That's my plan for injecting poetry and high-spirited audience participation into a set of booktalks that I have scheduled for later this week. Try this one out:

 

"Stegosaurus

steg-oh-SAW-rus (roof lizard)

"Ste-go-SAUR-us

Herb-bi-VOR-ous

Dined on plants inside the forest.

Bony plates grew on its back,

Perhaps to guard it from attack.

Or to help identify

A Stegosaurus girl or guy.

Its brain was smaller than a plum.

Stegosaurus was quite DUMB."

 

Most everyone loves dinosaurs (Not that we'd necessarily want one showing up in the backyard.), and there are many dinosaur books out there. But so frequently, dinosaur books seem to contain long, encyclopedic entries that cause many young readers to look at the dinosaur names and the images while skipping the text. In rocking, rollicking contrast, DINOTHESAURUS is readable, lyrical, and fun while still being irreverently and subversively educational.

 

"Baryonyx

BARE-ee-ON-icks (heavy claw)

"He had a huge and heavy claw

And crocodile-like skull.

A lashing, slashing dino-saw --

A sharpie; never dull.

His claws and jaws and pointed teeth

Were fashioned to attack.

If Bary you should ever meet--

Ask him to scratch your back."

 

DINOTHESAURUS concludes with a "Glossarysaurus;" a listing of dinosaur museums and fossil sites; and selected biography and further reading.

Douglas Florian's DINOTHESAURUS is a picture book that is chock-full of cool poetry; great illustrations with kid sensibilities, and is a must-have that will be a favorite of dino-lovers everywhere.

 

Richie Partington, MLIS

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