cover image Dinah's Egg

Dinah's Egg

Lee Lorenz. Simon & Schuster, $13.95 (33pp) ISBN 978-0-671-68685-7

As Dinah the dinosaur sits in prehistoric splendor waiting for her blue egg to hatch, a terrible storm jolts it out of the nest and starts it on a cataclysmic journey. The seemingly indestructible object survives the onslaught of salamander and serpent, crocodile and monster. Nor can a few elemental assaults do any damage: waterfalls, steaming rivers and active volcanoes only serve to move the egg along, unharmed, until it finally plops back into Dinah's nest. Awakened by all the jostling, a bright blue, bug-eyed baby dinosaur emerges to mother's conspicuous delight. This lively, antic account of the hazards of being an egg 300 million years ago is complemented by Lorenz's frantic, color-enhanced line drawings, which amusingly convey the age-old feelings of mother-love, even when thwarted by the harsh environment of the dinosaur era. Dinah's--unborn--offspring exhibits incredible spunk and tenacity, and readers will cheer this egg on its breakneck way. Ages 4-8. (May)