Dinosaur Countdown

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 23 JULY 2012

Oldland (Big Bear Hug) offers a bare-bones (no pun intended) counting book that features an array of dinosaurs as it works its way down from "ten striding velociraptors (and one looming predator)" to zero: "no dinosaurs (they're extinct, silly)." The simple formula brown and green dinos appear against a white backdrop along with the pared-down phrases is enhanced by playful staging: "six soaring pterodactyls" fly in chaotic circles, and "five smiling deinonychus" look gleefully deranged as they display their teeth. At times, Oldland takes the easy way out three spreads are broadly dedicated to carnivores, herbivores, and (worst of all) "dinosaurs," with no IDs provided for the beasts on those pages. Ages 2 6.