It's Probably Good Dinosaurs Are Extinct

The author-illustrator of The Stick Horse provides a whimsical and fantastical look at what the world would be like if dinosaurs had not become extinct.

What would life be like if dinosaurs still roamed the earth? Thanks to Jurassic Park , the premise is familiar, but Raney's vision has joy and fancy in place of terror. The thriving dinosaurs imagined by his boy protagonist create not so much havoc as humorous inconveniences: a drive in the country is stalled when a herd of apotosaurs decides to cross the road; Noah is obliged to build a much more spacious ark. Among the most wonderfully ludicrous images are of a stegosaurus pulling a covered wagon, and a rose-draped struthiomimus in the winners' circle of the Kentucky Derby. Raney brings a unique style to the illustrations. Photorealistic in line, they are often monochromatic with the lighting of a grainy, overexposed photograph. His deadpan sensibility, however, may be too static to fully engage the audience--both his dinosaurs and his humans seem as still as creatures caught in tar pits. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Ages 5-7. Here's a dinosaur lover with a practical bent. Although this young boy would love to have a pet dinosaur, he has carefully thought out how awkward and even dangerous things might be if those giants still roamed the earth. For instance, motorists might have to wait a long time for a herd of Apatosaurus to cross the road--not to mention the danger to paperboys who get too close to meat-eating dino pets. The dark illustrations take a little getting used to; they look very much like photographic negatives, but they give the effect of a parallel world in which anything can happen--and here it does. Denia Hester