cover image It's Probably Good Dinosaurs Are Extinct

It's Probably Good Dinosaurs Are Extinct

Ken Raney. Simon & Schuster, $14 (1pp) ISBN 978-0-671-86576-4

What would life be like if dinosaurs still roamed the earth? Thanks to Jurassic Park , the premise is familiar, but Raney's vision has joy and fancy in place of terror. The thriving dinosaurs imagined by his boy protagonist create not so much havoc as humorous inconveniences: a drive in the country is stalled when a herd of apotosaurs decides to cross the road; Noah is obliged to build a much more spacious ark. Among the most wonderfully ludicrous images are of a stegosaurus pulling a covered wagon, and a rose-draped struthiomimus in the winners' circle of the Kentucky Derby. Raney brings a unique style to the illustrations. Photorealistic in line, they are often monochromatic with the lighting of a grainy, overexposed photograph. His deadpan sensibility, however, may be too static to fully engage the audience--both his dinosaurs and his humans seem as still as creatures caught in tar pits. Ages 4-8. (Sept.)