Dinos don't do yoga

Sun salutations meet dino indignation. Ya gotta be "roar-and-rumble rough, and talon-tearing TOUGH!" to make it in Rex's valley. So what are the members of his gang to make of a dino that walks in one day with a series of peaceful poses? Though Rex declares the newcomer to be "silly," one by one his friends slip away to realign their spines and give their thighs some exercise. Incensed, Rex becomes a victim of his own bad temper, causing the true reason for his rudeness to come to light. "My jaws are deadly. My tail is spiny. My arms are strong! But also…tiny." In a happy ending, Yogasaurus graciously teaches Rex a pose that doesn't require use of the upper body. There's a great deal of good yoga-based storytime read-aloud potential here, thanks in large part to the soft rhymes. The book gracefully weaves in such yoga moves as the plank or the butterfly while keeping the tone amusing and informative rather than preachy. The art highlights this humor perfectly. The book gets a little loosey-goosey with historical timelines (giant ground sloths most certainly did not live in the same era as dinosaurs), but kids will be doing too many downward dogs to care. Roll out the mats for this dino/yoga mashup treat. (Picture book. 4-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.