On the title page, a T. rex reads the titular message with relief, but a nearby chicken indicates there may be more to the story: "You should probably read the book first." True, there may no longer be actual tyrannosauruses running amok, but there are still dinosaur descendants hanging around, and they may even be in your backyard: birds, of course! Sheneman gives a brief description of the dinosaur world of old, but with a cartoon ka-pow, a devastating asteroid wipes out the beloved prehistoric creatures. Well, most of the creatures, as the smaller ones manage to adapt and survive, and the story switches gears as it follows the development of the avian descendants. It's a whirlwind introduction to the dinosaur-bird connection, and while the book imparts wonderful scientific tidbits, the text infuses the subject with wry, laugh-out-loud humor. The cartoonish illustrations suit the silly tone perfectly, exaggerating shapes and expressions on dinosaurs and birds alike. No doubt the story will send young readers out to spot their own dinosaurs in the wild!

Can it be that dinosaurs still actually live in our backyards, fly in the sky, and poop on our cars?Indeed. Though it's not exactly news anymore, Sheneman here gives the bird-dino connection fresh jolts of wonder and hilarity. He traces it from the Jurassic Era to today-explaining how an asteroid brought the age of dinosaurs to a sudden end (allowing, the mammalian author rashly claims, mammals to become "the dominant form of life") but left one branch of feathered theropods to evolve, diversify, and spread to nearly every corner of our planet. The illustrations follow suit, beginning with mildly caricatured, dot- or googly-eyed dinosaurs posing in idyllic settings and making dim-bulb side comments. These give way in stages to views of modern (equally verbal) penguins, pigeons, peacocks, and other avian species in various habitats before gathering with their (even more) prehistoric forbears for a droll but revealing group portrait and then perching around the closing timeline. "I still don't get the resemblance," mutters a fuddled-looking T. rex at the end, looking down at a chicken. Viewers, though, well might. A trollish caveman, a lumpy White descendant in a lab coat (identified as "your dad") joking about the fried dinosaur on his plate, and a dinner companion politely telling him to cut it out are the only human figures in sight. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-22-inch double-page spreads viewed at 68% of actual size.)Why pine for prehistoric predators when their direct descendants are perching on the nearest birdbath? (Informational picture book. 5-9)

This informative and engaging nonfiction picture book, created with font and dialogue balloons that give it an accessible, comics-like style, is sure to captivate young dinosaur fans with the facts and history behind dinosaurs and their feathery modern relatives: birds. The narrator's voice strikes a straightforward yet droll tone ("It was the end of the Cretaceous period and the age of the dinosaurs. OR WAS IT?"). Intricately detailed illustrations depict dinosaurs and birds as pin-eyed, crosshatched, and richly colored beings, providing engrossing accompaniments to the text, while speech bubbles add comedy ("Yum! Fried dinosaur!" says a scientist holding a chicken leg). Hand this to up-and-coming paleontologists as well as kids who are curious about the Earth's gradual development. Back matter includes a timeline depicting highlights of avian history. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)