WHAT THE DINOSAURS DID ON HALLOWEEN

In the fourth title in the What the Dinosaurs Did series, the rampaging reptiles smell candy.

“Pay close attention on Halloween night, and you might see strange little shadows darken your hall. Not cast by ghouls, goblins, or ghosts…” The shadows are, of course, cast by miniature dinosaurs, and, having scented candy, they’re on the hunt. They attempt a candy raid by parachute (epic fail). They tie a rope to a plunger that they try to shoot at a tantalizing candy bowl (no go). Most sneakily and promisingly, they don Halloween costumes to avoid detection. This series’ calling card is its eye-blasting illustrations—in this case, photographs that were, per an authors’ note, “taken using a DSLR camera haunted by a mildly disgruntled spirit known only as ‘Gary.’” The images conjure the full-color saturation of CGI-heavy movies, but more captivating than famous actors are this book’s stars: plastic toy dinos (the kind for sale at a natural history museum’s gift shop) and the authors’ young, mostly white-presenting human friends, who posed in Halloween costumes, one kid presiding as the keeper of the candy, aka the dinos’ archnemesis. The photos have the immediacy of an I Spy book’s art and plenty of humor; the stegosaurus dressed up like a taco is especially chuckle-worthy. (Nice one, Gary.)

A funny, weird, and wondrous eyeful.