Mary had a monstersaur by Mike Dumbleton. Illus. by Peter Bath

Using Mary had a little lamb, the well know nursery rhyme as a template, Dumbleton has written a funny version where Mary meets a dinosaur, left over from the meteor shower which blanketed the earth sixty million years ago, wiping out all dinosaurs. Our lone fellow lives in a hole behind the garden shed, and just like the lamb in the original tale, follows Mary everywhere. He goes to school with Mary, causing a sensation as he steps on her face and sits on the bus, but his long tail comes in vey handy as a slide in the pool. But when he eats all the lunches in the school canteen and wrecks some play equipment, he feels he does not belong and so begins to move away. But the whole group stops him, telling him that they love him and asking him to stay. Supporting their friend, millions of likes appear on social media, urging him to reconsider his decision.

Smart rhyming lines will intrigue readers and listeners as they recall the original Mary had a little lamb, and work out how Dumbleton has twisted the story to incorporate the dinosaur. Kids will have a great time predicting the rhyming words and reciting the original as well as comparing the two. And they will learn a little information about dinosaurs along the way and laugh at the twist in the tale as the hole in the garden reveals something unexpected.

Illustrations by London based Peter Bath add another level of humour to Dumbleton’s words, the endearing monstersaur will engage readers as they follow his plight. Not fitting in and feeling left out are common feelings for the young and they will empathise with the dinosaur and his attempts to be sociable.

I loved the green monster and his hovering eyebrows, and surprisingly few lines giving so much expression to his face. Children will love teasing apart the word larrikin, the name of the publishing house which produced this book, to see what part being a larrikin plays in the story.

Larrikin House aims to create quirky, edgy, original funny kid-focussed books. And more can be found here.

Themes: Larrikins, Dinosaurs, School, Fitting in, Acceptance, Friendship, Nursery rhymes, Verse.

Fran Knight