Creature Count: A Prehistoric Rhyme

Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals take center stage in Huante’s debut, a counting book that riffs on the “Over in the Meadow” rhyme. A mother T. rex and her “terrible rexes six” shake the earth with their “booms”; a mother triceratops munches vines with “her frilly little nine”; and a maisaur urges her babies to crack through their shells: “ ‘Hatch!’ said the mother. ‘We hatch!’ said the ten./ So they hatched and they cuddled in their nest in a glen.” Nguyen (Buzz) creates gentle dinosaur families that almost look like they’ve been molded from clay; their softly rounded features should appeal to toddlers not yet ready for more realistic dinosaurs. Ages 3–up. (July)