Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
— William Shakespeare
This light romp from Deborah Bruss and Matt Forest Esenwine has loads of laughs as dinos try wrapping presents and baking cakes in Don’t Ask a Dinosaur. The text has loads of those tough dino names, all with dots to separate the syllables into pronounceable snack-sizes. And it scans smoothly and rhymes! I know, I couldn’t believe it either. Plus, Louie Chin did a wonderful job bringing the dinos to vivid but not-too-scary life.
Notes: Matt gave me a sneak peek at the book, but I believe it’s newly out this week. If you have a tyke with a dino-fixation, you will soon be the cool parent who can pronounce all those tongue-twisting names.
Writing Tip: Pair unexpected things for humor value, like dinosaurs and birthday parties. Like, don’t ask a tiger to watch your baby brother. If you think of a funny pairing, please leave it in the comments.
Happy Poetry Friday and thanks to Tabatha Yeatts at the Opposite of Indifference for hosting!
Thanks for you review. Length doesn’t matter – it’s the content that’s important.
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People appreciate brevity, I find. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by.
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prononceable snack sizes. ha!
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🙂 It might be a micro review, but I hope it’s not boring. 😉
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Thanks for sharing, Brenda. “Don’t Ask a Dinosaur” sounds like something my grandson would say and a book he’d enjoy. As for a pairing, maybe don’t ask a skunk to clean your house.
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LOL I must remember not to ask a skunk to clean my house! What a mistake that would be.
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Thank you for sharing this “dino”mite book, Brenda! I think your writing tip sounds fun! Also, I appreciate the words of the writerly wisdom that you offered me this week. It’ s so important to remember to be a patient writer, trusting the words will come in due time.
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I believe they do. It’s always slower than I wish. 🙂
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I think a rhino and a hummingbird would have an unlikely friendship!
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There you go. And make one of them obsessed with shoes. 🙂
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Matt and Deborah’s book sounds like a winner! When you asked for an unexpected pairing, for some reason a pizza-making penguin popped into my head!
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Wonderful! If I were a penguin, I’d still love pizza. 🙂
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Hi Brenda, nice review of Matt and Deborah’s book, I’m a big dino fan myself. Here’s a unexpected pairing: Don’t ask a crow to be your locksmith, you may end up locked out forever! Thanks.
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Nice one! I can see that crow flying away with your key, and cawing-cawing heartily.
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Wonderful Shakespeare quote. It sets up the incongruity in your post wonderfully. I don’t have an original incongruous example, but Nikki Giovanni’s poem “I Wrote a Good Omelet” is filled with them.
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I’ll look for her poem. The title is wonderful.
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Reading about this book makes me (almost) wish I had a dino-infatuated kid in the house again! Maybe I’ll just borrow one for a read aloud!
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Neither of my boys was ever dino-obsessed, but they had friends who were. Mine were more into trucks. They like Trash Trucks.
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Those long dino names are indeed tricky — Deborah and Matt made it all work so well in their fun book. 🙂
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Took a lot of work to make it so smooth, I imagine.
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My youngest granddaughter and I got the book this week and we loved it, so full of laughs! I’m glad you’re sharing it today, Brenda!
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Such a thoughtful thing to do, Linda. You must be the best grandmama.
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I never thought of doing unexpected pairings to add humor value. That’s one good writing tip. It brings in silliness and fun, all i have in my head at the moment is Don’t ask a cat to make you a hat, it’ll be with scratch.
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LOL I love it, it’s great! My cat would have sat on any hat, decorating it with hair and marking it with holes.
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It scans smoothly and rhymes?? It teaches how to pronounce the names easily?? My hat is off!!
You want another unexpected pairing? Okay, how about don’t ask a pirate to be your dentist? Anything could happen!
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LOL Kiss your gold teeth goodbye! Love it!
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Thanks, Brenda – I haven’t seen this one up close and personal yet, but glad it’s getting all this fun attention! Sounds like a kid-hit for sure.
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I do think kids will love it.
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Thanks for sharing about the new book Don’t Ask a Dinosaur. What a great title, huh?! I am looking forward to reading it in the near future. Sounds like a fun book.
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It’s fun, for sure.
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Great tip – It’s interesting how pairing unexpected things has humor values.
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We all need humor, like vitamins. A belly laugh a day. 🙂
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Thank you so much for sharing this review, Brenda, I appreciate it! I’m glad you enjoyed the book, and hope your readers do, too..
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Always a pleasure to read one of your books.
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I love funny pairings!
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It’s a wonderful book.
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