Dinosaur's Night Before Christmas

K-Gr 2—A dad who has stayed up late to assemble his son's toys is surprised on Christmas Eve by eight fierce, flying dinosaurs pulling a sleigh and a Santa-suit-clad T. rex that promptly eats him. In its stomach, the man finds Santa in red long underwear, who relates a sad tale of a dinosaur-cloning experiment gone wrong. Some impromptu bubble-gum chewing gets the two expelled from the T. rex's stomach, and some fancy work with a toy ray gun renders the reptiles harmless. Although the cartoon illustrations have playful child appeal, the rhyming text (modeled after Moore's famous poem) is overlong and as clunky and lumpy as Harris's dinosaurs. And though young readers are willing to suspend disbelief, especially around Christmastime, the plot stretches credulity too far. For better dinosaur-tinged treatments of Moore's poem, try Janet Lawler's Tyrannoclaus (HarperCollins, 2009) or Anne Muecke's Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas (Chronicle, 2008).—Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library