DINOSAUR BONES
by Bob Barner & illustrated by Bob Barner
With its dazzling colors and big, simple, paper collage forms, this may draw fans of Byron Barton’s Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs (1989) and Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones (1990), but it’s strictly an also-ran. Between a lame, large-type rhyme at the top and several lines of commentary in smaller type below each scene, Barner (Fish Wish, 2000, etc.) alternates skeletal and fleshed-out portraits of five popular dinosaurs. Problem is that the skeleton paired with Spinosaurus belongs to some other (unspecified) creature, and—even novice dino fans will puzzle over this one—all of the T. Rexes have flat, plant-eater teeth. Also, Barner will leave most readers none the wiser by rightly noting that some dinosaurs had hips like birds, and some like lizards, but neither showing nor explaining the difference. The design wins no points either; background colors are so saturated that some blocks of text are indistinct, and the “Dino-meter” at the end is not a measurement chart (that appears on the previous spread), but a table of general facts. Give this one a miss. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-7)