Suppose You Meet a Dinosaur: A First Book of Manners

Sierra and Bowers team up for a slightly different take on the dinosaurs plus manners theme that has been well covered by the How Do Dinosaurs... series. There’s no bad behavior on display in this outing: when a small girl meets a T-Rex who’s shopping at the grocery store, the girl models the polite way to interact with others, even in unexpected circumstances. “Your shopping cart begins to spin./ It dings the dino on the shin./ She roars a terrifying roar./ What do you tell the dinosaur?” The correct responses to this and other scenarios appear in large speech bubbles. There’s lots of physical comedy on display in Bowers’s acrylic paintings—the dinosaur drives away in a tiny pink car better suited for Barbie—which, along with Sierra’s characteristically sturdy verse, helps the gentle message about manners go down smoothly. Ages 3–6. (Jan.)