The dinosaur in the garden

A dinosaur and a curious young child make a connection over millions of years. The author of 2020's clever and engaging Old Rock (Is Not Boring) tackles the theme of geologic time from another angle. "I used to live here," says her toothy theropod narrator, recalling lush and leafy prehistoric forests and encounters with other dinosaurs ("most were delicious"). But "a lot has changed," beginning with a certain falling meteor and continuing through successive ages of oceans, mountain building, and ice to, at last, a rustic yard where a child plays, burbles with questions about nature, and finds a fossil footprint and a large tooth. "I will wait," the patient predator concludes, "for my story to become part of your story." And indeed, those discoveries spark further questions and sustained interest, until the child returns to the site just a little later (relatively speaking) as a grown-up paleontologist to dig out the skeleton buried beneath. In a final scene, the paleontologist presents it fully reassembled to a diverse and fascinated group of museum visitors. In Pilutti's sweet and serene illustrations, the tan-skinned child appears to be biracial (one parent is brown-skinned, while the other is light-skinned). A closing note about fossils and the scientists who find them ends with an enticing invitation to join in dinosaur research and study--beginning, of course, with birds. An engaging suggestion that hints of the past are there for the finding, if we will but look. (Picture book. 6-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.