Oh No! Dinosaurs in the Supermarket

PreS-Gr 3–A shopping trip devolves into an exercise in zany slapstick when dinosaurs invade the grocery aisle and wreak havoc with the food. Despite the young protagonist’s efforts to sound the alarm, the mischievous beasts continually duck out of sight, leaving unexplained messes for the grown-ups in the store to puzzle over. Knapman composes snappy rhyming quatrains in common meter (“There are dinosaurs in the supermarket!/ Look, they’re everywhere!/ If only grownups noticed them/ They’d get a great big scare”). A number of British colloquialisms from the text of the original UK edition are pragmatically translated for American audiences (“flans” to “pies” and “car park” to “parking lot,” etc.), though some changes (“mom” to “mum” means it no longer rhymes with “come”) mars the rhyme, obviously. Warburton’s cartoon-style art, all splashes, squishes, and splats, works appropriately with the wild humor. The story itself is rather slight, with the premise stretched about as far as it can go. The abruptness of the ending (in which the dinosaurs suddenly reveal themselves to all), though sufficiently comedic, may leave readers wondering about the adult characters’ response.