Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by David Roberts - review

Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by David Roberts
David Roberts does it again. The artist who brought us Pucci dresses and dirty diapers in Iggy Peck, Architect, and Kate Bush albums recycled as art in The Dumpster Diver proves that he is equally adept at portraying the natural world.

Tyrannosaurus Drip is the story of a duckbill dinosaur who hatches in a T. rex nest. Talk about your fish out of water. There's a whole bunch of back and forth about the Tyrannosaurs trying to eat the duckbills, and the baby veggie-saur not fitting in with his meat-eating parents, as you might expect, but the real joy here is the syncopated, funky rhythmic language.

And they shouted, "Up with hunting!"
And they shouted, "Up with war!"
And they shouted, "Up with bellyfuls of duckbill dinosaur!"

Julia Donaldson is responsible for a couple of my favorite books of the last couple of years: Charlie Cook's Favorite Book and The Spiffiest Giant in Town, not to mention The Gruffalo. And somehow David Roberts makes prehistoric trees and ferns and even hadrosaurs look like cool midcentury floor lamps. Cool midcentury floor lamps with personality. Would somebody hand this guy an award already?