BROTHER BILLY BRONTO'S BYGONE BLUES BAND

In a cadenced narrative dancing with wordplay, Birchman describes a hot band that includes ``Rex the King Tyrone on the slide trombone...a mean allosaurus saxophonist nicknamed Lizard Lips Grace...[and] the heart of the band...Brother Billy Bronto. Thumping down on the big bass with the rings on his claws all flashing bright.'' The popular band tours by train; but, alas, a bridge collapses and the band's bones end ``deep dark down in that bayou'' and ``there rests the blues in a pool of ooze with the ghosts of the bygone-bye.'' The catchy lilt here is much in the spirit of Joyce Maxner's Nicholas Cricket (1989), with the dinosaurs as an added attraction. New Yorker cartoonist O'Brien makes another entertaining contribution to the children's book world with his humorously detailed, curled, and crosshatched drawings touched with cheery color; his crowds of busy dinosaurs are wonderfully animated and appealing. Good fun. (Picture book. 5-10)