"Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, is one of the best places on Earth to find dinosaur bones," explains the book's endnote. Heidbreder (I Wished for a Unicorn
), Slavin (Stanley's Party
) and Melo imagine it's also the site of a nightly dinosaur fandango macabre. When the sun sets, the skeletal dinos "stir their bones from secret cracks/ and assemble themselves—/ fronts, sides and backs." With the midnight blue sky and red sandstone hoodoos providing backdrops, the prehistoric pals cavort with abandon to a bone-shaking beat: "Boomity-Boom
/ Rattely-Clack
/Thumpity-
Thump
/Whickety-Whack
." Grown-ups think the racket is "a terrible storm!" but young dinosaur fanatics know better, and converge on the scene to bop along in their pajamas until daybreak. Slavin and Melo have a field day, so to speak, making the impressively detailed dinosaur frames break dance and boogie (the typography gets into the act as well, rocking and rolling through the spreads). The crackled texture of the acrylics evokes the weirdly eroded landscape, while dramatic perspectives play up the dancers' uninhibited primeval merriment. The book may well send both youngsters and grown-ups to the Internet and library shelves to find out more about the paleontological riches of Drumheller. Ages 3-6. (Sept.)
