Too Many Dinosaurs by Mercer Mayer (2011) was an exciting library book sale find. It's always fun to discover another of his books. In this one, dinosaurs appear on land and in the air. On the cover, a child holds a baby triceratops in the foreground while another child runs away in terror in the background. Mercer Mayer is an illustration genius, but you don’t need me to tell you that. Here’s a simple yet clever story with colorful, detailed pictures--a masterpiece. The main character, wisely gender neutral, wants a puppy. This might be a tired premise in the hands of another author. But not for Mayer. Mayer’s protagonist buys a dinosaur egg at a yard sale, and it hatches. A single action results in multiple dinosaurs. With no other obvious ideas, that same action causes them to fade away. (But they reemerge!) And the child gets a puppy. Pretty novel way to solve the problem of convincing mom to buy a dog.
