The Girl and the Dinosaur

The Girl and Dinosaur is a sweet luminous story about the power of make believe. Marianne digs up a skeleton on the shore; the worried fisher folk look on, concerned that she isn’t spending enough time with other kids. But Marianne awakens the dinosaur with a promise of friendships, and at night it comes to transport her to an island where she meets lots of other children.

Hollie Hughes’ rhyming story is charming as her previous book The Tide, and the illustrations by Massini are a perfect complement. Done with watercolor, pencil, printed collage, and photoshop, the drawings are rich and varied. They range from up close, panoramic views, and full spreads. The drawings also convey motion very well. The color palette of oranges and yellows with the green of the dinosaurs that contrasts the blues and grays of the magical, mysterious night create a nice flow and setting for the story.

My two preschoolers enjoyed this story very much. It’s universal that children like to have secrets from grown ups, and this one is delicious. How silly grown ups are to not see what is on the beach or up in the sky.