Dino-Football by Lisa Wheeler illustrated by Barry Gott

On any given Sunday you can find two Dino-teams fighting for football glory out on the grid-iron. But in the Mega-Bowl, it's down to two teams: The Redscales vs. the Greenblade Snackers. As the fans cheer from the packed stands, the Redscales get out to an early lead, but the game is far from over. Who will be the winners at the end of the day?

I knew vaguely about the Dino-sports series but hadn't read any until I started Dino-Football. I can see how the concept can easily sustain a series. The rhyming text keeps the story moving, and the illustrations are incredibly detailed (for one example of this, check out the spread that has the list of players' names). The pictures play with size and perspective and really dominate the story. I'm not really in the book's dino-loving, sports-enthusiast preschooler demographic, so about 3/4 of the way through the book even though I was enjoying it I was also ready for it to be ending. I think that those in the aforementioned demographic, though, will happily follow the action from end zone to end zone. There's lots of action, the dinosaurs have lots of expression, and the energy pops off the page. For the Dino-Sports series, it's the book equivalent of a touchdown.

Check out Lisa Wheeler and Barry Gott's websites.

I received a review copy from NetGalley courtesy of Lerner.

Find it at Amazon. 

Read it with:
Dino-Soccer by Lisa Wheeler
Dino-Baseball by Lisa Wheeler
Dino-Hockey by Lisa Wheeler
Dinosaur vs. Bedtime by Bob Shea
Danny and the Dinosaur by Syd Hoff