OH NO! DINOSAURS IN THE SUPERMARKET

The title says it all.

An unnamed, pale-skinned young boy clad in a scaly-looking sweater accompanies his mother on a trip to the supermarket. As Mom pushes the shopping cart, the boy detects a bunch of dinosaurs all throughout the store. Stegosaurs, apatosaurs, iguanodons, triceratops, and more alternatively consume, knock over, or toss goods all over the place. Every adult remains oblivious as the dinosaurs conceal themselves in the displays right under their noses. But the grown-ups can see the giant messes created by the chaotic reptiles. The boy tries to reveal the secret, pointing at gloopy, three-toed footprints, but the adults dismiss his claim as ridiculous. Fearful that he’ll be blamed for the messes, the boy convinces the dinosaurs to play a clean-up game. Just as the youngster is getting credit for tidying the supermarket, the dinosaurs have one final trick to play. This bit-of-silliness story is straightforward in concept and execution. Young readers can take pleasure from being in on the joke while deriving an extra layer of amusement from searching for the dinos as they hide throughout the aisles. Warburton’s images, a combination of pencil drawings and mixed-media textures, are incredibly dynamic and expressive, enhanced by interesting perspective angles and awash in varied, gradiated colors. Informative endpapers provide pronunciation guides for the various dino species.

Good for a laugh.