Bang! Boom! Roar! A Busy Crew of Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs and heavy-duty vehicles share the spotlight in this alphabetical tour of a construction site, but unlike Chris Gall's Dinotrux, this story casts the dinosaurs as a busy team of workers using the backhoes and bulldozers. Moving through the alphabet, Evans (coauthor of the Jellybeans series) and Brown (Professor Aesop's The Crow and the Pitcher) present a lively four-line rhyme that plays up each letter: "Hard hats, tool belts, heavy boots;/ Hammers hanging from their loops./ Heave and hoist! Hydraulic muscle!/ Heavy metal, high-wire hustle!" Just as the authors pack their verse with alliteration, Santoro (Grandpappy Snippy Snappies) jams each mixed-media spread with outsize comedic moments and enough details to delight construction-loving readers. Photographic elements (boulders, crates, rubble) mix with Santoro's glossy cartoon dinosaurs, who wear hard hats, orange vests, and pants that occasionally sink too low in the rear. More than 20 dinos appear throughout (Santoro labels both the creatures and the vehicles on the endpapers, using a banana and steak to distinguish herbivores and carnivores). Like their crew of dinosaurs, this team gets the job done. Ages 3%E2%80%937. (Sept.)