I AM A TYRANNOUSAURUS REX!

Many years ago, when my sons were little, I sang them songs I made up. One was “I Am a Tyrannosaurus Rex” about a Dino who loves to “eat and eat and eat and eat.” I thought a book about dinosaurs based on that song would be fun.

Science and humor

I tried to be true to the habits and size of the dinosaurs I wrote about. some, like Velociraptor, were much smaller than movies show them! Others, like Brontosaurus, really were gigantic. I drew my Dinos to show some special aspect of each one — T-Rex’s enormous appetite; the way Brontosaurus gobbled down rocks to crush the greenery they ate; Archeopteryx’s hunger for our mammal ancestors. Humor makes the lessons go down easy: Velociraptor’s baseball caps, a looking glass for Mama stegosaurus, and the headaches caused by Pachycephalosaurus bumping heads. Based on kids who have read the book, I think kids will be able to separate the “true’ from the “funny.”

I drew may dinos using PowerPoint. Some of the shading was done by pasting a dark, transparent shape atop a colored one!