Dino-Baseball (Dino-Sports)

Once again, the play-by-play action in the acrylic paintings and the rhyming text (“Green Sox need to change the score. / Their only hope? Apatosaur!”) will captivate young baseball fans, while the humor in each incongruous scene will widen the book’s audience to sports-ambivalent kids. 

Wheeler and Gott already proved they have a winning formula with "Dino-Hockey" (2007) and "Dino-Soccer" (2009), and there's plenty for dinosaur/sports fanatics to enjoy in this latest installment (the final page hints at a basketball follow-up). It's a beautiful day in Jurassic Park (ballpark, that is), and the herbivores and carnivores are taking the field for the season's final game. The crowd is enthusiasticand similarly extinct. Wheeler's sturdy, concise couplets provide a nicely percussive play-by-play: Stego rumbles down the line./ Compy calls, 'This one is mine!'/ Gloves the ball. Throws him out./ "That's" what baseball's all about! (The dinosaurs' nicknames are set in contrasting type; a list of their full names can be found in team rosters displayed on the Jumbotron on the first page). Gott nails the drama of high-stakes game with a series of skewed perspectives and never overplays the comedyhis dinosaurs, with their imposing heft and improbably balletic grace, are more than capable of conveying the sublime absurdity of it all. Ages 5-9. 

PreS-Gr 2 In this third book about the Rib-Eye Reds (carnivores) and Green Sox (herbivores), the teams are all over the diamond playing fast-action baseball. The rhyming text sweeps youngsters through the game with appropriate baseball idioms peppered throughout. Wheeler includes on-the-field plays as well as typical baseball-crowd fun like a manager's tantrum, a seventh-inning stretch, and a visit to the snack bar. Gott's illustrations are masterful at catching the leaping, running action of the battling behemoths and giving each spread a stop-action, "you are there" feel. The final page promises a rematch on the basketball court in the next book. Libraries looking to satisfy dinosaur lovers as well as sports enthusiasts will find this title an easy sell. "Marge Loch-Wouters, La Crosse Public Library, WI"