How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

By slitting you open from your navel to your chin, of course (which, incidentally, is also how they say "good morning"). Nah, just kidding! Dinos are actually excellent bedtime role models, as parents and their offspring will discover by the end of this nicely animated adaptation of Jane Yolen's ALA Notable Book How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? (2000), featuring illustrations by Mark Teague. Author Yolen does an admirable narration job on this pre-lights-out primer which asks whether dinos engage in the kind of stalling or tantrum-throwing behavior common to some human children faced with the prospect of sleep ("does a dinosaur stomp his feet on the ground and say 'I wanna hear one more' after a bedtime story?", Yolen asks). Although we see examples of kids and dinos moping, moaning, sulking, sighing, pouting, pounding, and more, viewers eventually learn that--in reality--dinos kiss their moms and dads goodnight and sail off peacefully towards the land of dreamy dreams. Sporting dino-mite animation, a bouncy score by Jerry Dale McFadden, and Yolen's spot-on reading, this delightful production is enthusiastically recommended. Aud: K, P. (R. Pitman)