"This is not a toy," warns Tom's mother as she heads to the neighbor's. "Don't play with it." But her new digital kitchen timer resembles a "flying saucer" and the temptation proves too great. Tom presses a button, and Foreman (Wonder Goal!) shows the kitchen walls in a whirl of blues and aquas that, by the next spread, transform into a prehistoric lake setting. There, a bevy of only slightly menacing dinosaurs chase him into a nest of triceratops eggs. Pressing the timer button once again, he returns home with one of the eggs (just in time to hear his mother returning from the neighbor's house), which hatches in his closet. Tom uses the timer once more to dispatch the dino baby home, where the triceratops mother warns her offspring not to play with the timer—and sets the stage for a return visit. Foreman's rather perfunctory flight of fancy possesses a few intriguing aspects, including the suggestion of a budding human-reptilian friendship and the idea of ordinary objects holding alluring, extraordinary powers. Children may well appreciate the dreamlike chase scene against an exotic backdrop of fuzzy, purple palm-like trees and an erupting volcano. Ages 4-8. (Aug.)
