Richie's Picks: 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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