On the Night Before Christmas: How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas? by Jane Yolen

On the eve of the big day, there’s no mother’s child who never gets hyper, antsy or wild. So what does a dinosaur do when it’s time to nestle snugly in bed?

DOES HE EAT ALL THE COOKIES LEFT OUT FOR ST. NICK?
DOES HE GIVE ALL THE CANDY CANES ONE SLOPPY LICK?

It’s that time of year when kids alternate between being angelic and slightly crazed, and in Jane Yolen’s and Mark Teague’s latest saurian saga, How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas? (Blue Sky Press, 2012), those dino kids are shown doing all those wild and crazy things inspired by the season. As in all of their elegant etiquette lessons, unusual dinosaur juveniles are shown, potentially doing all the things that no one wants them to do at the holiday season–dumping the contents of the stockings on the floor, breaking the ornaments and knocking down the just-decorated tree. Is that how a dinosaur should say “Merry Christmas, Mom and Dad”?

Of course not.

HE CAROLS WITH CARE.
HE HELPS TRIM THE TREE
SO NO BRANCHES ARE BARE!

And when it’s about time for Santa to come to town, he goes up to bed with nary a frown. And when Santa’s sleigh lands and the snow lies deep, he’s upstairs in bed and sound asleep. At least, that what good little dinos do in the latest of Yolen’s How Do Dinosaurs...series, as told in Yolen’s meter-perfect verses and Mark Teague’s delightful illustrations, which show unusual dinosaurs (such as a gorgeously red and green feathered gigantoraptor) and which, as always, provide the name of each ditzy dinosaur concealed somewhere in the large two-page spreads for sharp-eyed kids to spy out, as well as reprised in their dinosaur-studded endpapers.

After many titles in their trademark series, Yolen and Teague have not lost their touch. How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas? offers a subtle exposition on the right way to do St. Nick and Mom and Dad proud on Christmas Eve. “Uproarious hypotheticals,” as Publishers Weekly succinctly puts it

For a dynamic dino drama duo, pair this one with Yolen's and Teague’s brand-new companion book, How Do Dinosaurs Say Happy Chanukah? (Blue Sky Press, 2012).