Don't SCRATCH IT! The Itchy Book by LeUyen Pham

There it is, chiseled in stone.

DINOSAURS DO NOT SCRATCH

A dinosaur passes through. A drowsy turtle nods and points at the stone marker.

"You learn something every day.

Who knew?"

It must be true.

Tricerotops passes through and reads the sign.

You know how it is. You don't itch until you think about it. Then all you can think about is scratching that itch. But if the first dinosaur is manly enough to control the urge, Triceratops has to prove he's made of sterner stuff, too.

He. will. Not. Scratch.

Pterodactyl glides by and gets stung by a bee. Before he can scratch the bite, Triceratops points to the sign.

DINOSAURS DO NOT SCRATCH

"Are you a dinosaur or not?"

Brontosaurus passes by and inquires what the three of them are doing.

"We are being tough dinosaurs!" they say.

Now the four of them are so itchy they're twitchy, but they are determined not to show any weakness in front of their friends.

Finally T. Rex comes along. T. Rex confesses that he has a label in his tee shirt is driving him bonkers. He can't reach it. Could somebody kindly scratch his neck....? The four point to the sign.

"It's tough to be tough," said Bronto.

Will Tyrannosaurus Rex suck it up? Will that itch ever get scratched? There is a surprise ending in LeUyen Pham's new addition to the Elephant and Piggie Love Reading series, Elephant amd Piggie Like Reading! - The Itchy Book! (Hyperion Books, 2018.) that will release some of the suspense with a big AHHHH!

The multiple award-winning Mo Willem's Elephant and Piggie beginning reader series has been so popular that the publisher has invited other noted author-illustrators to create some sequels, and this one enlists the power of suggestion to get young readers itching to read it all the way through. With introductory pages by Willems' Elephant and Piggie themselves, Pham's group of tough dinos are colorful comic characters who may well begin a series on their own.