Face it: kids want pets, and some will go to great measures to acquire them. But the "kids" in How Do Dinosaurs Choose Their Pets? are especially ambitious in their attempts to bring home the perfect snuggly companion. Readers familiar with Jane Yolen and Mark Teague's beloved How Do Dinosaurs... series will instantly recognize the pattern, starting with "How does a dinosaur pick out his pet?" and escalating to more absurd scenarios:
"Does she drag a huge elephant
back in a wagon
with both its long trunk
and its wee tail
a-dragging?"
The satisfying refrain--"No... a dinosaur doesn't"--serves as a transition between all the silly "Does he or she..." queries and the ultimately more reasonable approach:
"He goes to a shelter
or pet store
or farm
to find a small creature
who will do no harm."
The magic in the series (which includes How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? and How Do Dinosaurs Love Their Dogs?) is in the recognition it sparks in small children--in this case in those who might themselves have tried to drag home an unsuitable pet or two. There's no judgment lurking beneath Yolen's words; she gently brings readers along as if they knew all the while that one does not bring home a tiger from the zoo or keep a shark in a pail.
Elaborately detailed and comical illustrations of dinos like the Ampelosaurus, Coahuilaceratops and Rhinorex romp through the pages, clutching boa constrictors and kangaroos with equal zeal. Of course, once they learn the proper way to select a pet, these same dinosaurs are excited but gentle with their new cats, dogs and bunnies. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor