by Moe Zilla

Created on: October 02, 2010

"In a prehistoric river in a prehistoric swamp,
lived a herd of duckbill dinosaurs who liked to stand and chomp."

I love the wild camaraderie among the playful pack of weed-eating dinosaurs. But turn the page, and they're dwarfed by two scowling Tyrannosauruses that are red and toothy. They want to eat the duckbill dinosaurs, but unfortunately, they can't swim across the river.

"And they muttered, 'down with water!' and they uttered, 'Down with wet!'
And they muttered, 'What a shame that bridges aren't invented yet.'"

It's a clever rhyme by Julia Donaldson, a British author who began her career writing songs for children's television (according to Wikipedia). Some of the words may be difficult for young readers, like Compsognathus and "alackaday," but underneath it's bouncy rhythm is a surprisingly thoughtful story. The tiny blue compsognathus steals an egg from the duckbilled dinosaurs, but then gets frightened away after carrying it to the other side of the river. The mother tyrannosaurus mistakes it for one of her own, and ends up raising it in her own nest.

"And she sang, 'Hatch out, my terrors, with your scaly little tails
And your spiky little toothies and your scary little nails."

Some children like books about dinosaurs, and this book delivers all the appropriate malevolent thrills. Donaldson's most famous book is probably The Gruffalo, which sold over one million copies, and this book seems to start with the same premise. There's playful, smaller creatures facing danger from something larger and menacing. But in this case, it's the baby dinosaur's own mother!

Vegetarians might like this book, since the misfit baby refuses to eat meat. He's destined to be unhappy in this family, and eventually they're leaving him behind on their hunting sprees. When the book first introduces the red tyrannosaurus dinosaurs, they're chanting "Up with hunting! Up with war!" His sisters eventually call him Tyrannosaurus Drip, and he's told that he's "not fierce enough" to hunt with them. But he finds a welcoming community on the day he runs away from home.

"And the duckbills came to greet him by the rush river's edge
And they hooted, 'Nice to see you!" and they hooted 'Have some veg!'"

The drawings by David Roberts are a lot of fun. They're simple and stylized, suggesting the feeling in the group of dinosaurs rather than emphasizing individual personalities. Eventually a log falls across the river, and the evil red tyrannosaurus family can now cross to stalk the weed-eaters. But by the end of the book, they've all fallen into the river, and the peace-loving, weed-eating dinosaur gets a happy ending after all.

His troublesome family are all washed away to sea!

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