We're Back! : A Dinosaur's Story

Creatures from prehistoric time travel to the twentieth century and create excitement at the Museum of Natural History in New York.

PreSchool-Grade 2 Outer space creatures test market their new product Brain Grain, an IQ enhancer, on dinosaurs. They educate the beasts and ship them to the United States, where the dinosaurs land in New York just in time for the Thanksgiving Day parade. After wreaking havoc with the balloons and spectators, the dinosaurs are taken in by a kindly museum curator at the Natural History Museum, Dr. Bleeb. She helps them escape the wrath of the police by posing the dinosaurs as a museum exhibit. When the police leave, the dinosaurs decide to stay, and fall asleep listening to Dr. Bleeb's bedtime stories. Readers may also be put to sleep by this book's feeble plot, which is packed with Supersaurus-sized holes. Who are these outer space creatures anyhow, and what dinosaur-populated planet do they come from? Why do they ship the creatures to the U.S.? And why do they disappear totally from the book after dumping the dinosaurs in New York? The rather nice watercolors are interrupted by mundane cartoon dialogue, which unfortunately only adds to the pointless meanderings of the text. Better books are Carrick's Patrick's Dinosaurs (Houghton, 1983) or Bernard Most's If the Dinosaurs Came Back (HBJ, 1978); let this one fossilize. Cathryn A. Camper, Minneapolis Public Library
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Vorb hangs down from a flying saucer and offers some dinosaurs the break of a lifetime; he's from Mega-Mind Inc. and is test-marketing a new product, Brain Grainwith an extra special bonus prize and free snacks. With Brain Grain, a dinosaur first experiences a "new me" and, eventually, a "new us." The prize? A drop into midtown Manhattan in the 20th century. Destination: Dr. Bleeb's Museum of Natural History. The gang parades in a Thanksgiving celebration but soon they're discovered to be real out-of-towners and are chased all the way to the museum, where they're saved by Dr. Bleeb. Those who think original dinosaur books are extinct are going to change their minds with this one. A very welcome bunch of monsters has landed in kids' laps; Talbot's prehistoric characters exhibit real stage presence, from the glint in their eyes to the way they slather over those snacks. Ages 3-7.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.