Jane Yolen (writer) and Mark Teague (illustrator) both play a role in making the 2017 picture book How Do Dinosaurs Choose Their Pets? fun. To be fair, though, either name would be enough by itself to guarantee quality; both are award-winning, and they’ve worked together on multiple dinosaur-related books. (You can even find a Scholastic video interview with the pair here.)
In this one, dinosaurs choose pets. Yolen sets up a number of situations in clean, simple verse (usually a rhyming quatrain). Teague then illustrates the evoked situation in large, vivid images. A range of dinosaurs make appearances–all of which are actual dinosaurs–and they select a range of pets. The reason behind the specific choices is sometimes a bit hazy–why would a triceratops choose a tiger?–but always fun.
There’s a little scientific education here (names of the individual dinosaurs) and a bit more emotional education (on caring for pets, and by extension, other dinosaurs, I mean, people). That’s nice, but really, these books are fun.
