Tim Miller (text), Matt Stanton (illus.), Dinosaur Dump, HarperCollins, 1 Oct 2015, 32pp., $24.99 (hbk), ISBN: 9780733334634
Dinosaur Dump obeys the cardinal rule of writing: know your audience. This book is about dinosaurs and poo. The tagline on the front cover is “What happened to the dinosaurs is grosser than you think . . .” A queue of dinosaurs are lining up to poo in a volcano. Each character’s toilet habits are detailed, until eventually the volcano explodes, sending a wave of shit down the mountain and wiping out the dinosaurs. The book is published by ABC kids, who have published several other gross-out books by Miller and Stanton. While this book is likely to be very successful with 2-5 year olds, it’s less appealing for the unfortunate adults who will be commanded to read this book again and again.
Tim Miller’s words give a sense of each dinosaur’s personality and provide humorous details about their defecatory experience. For instance, Betty the stegosaurus “felt a sense of great relief as she sat down and let RIP!” I generally dislike rhyming picturebooks, and Dinosaur Dump is no exception. There are a few rhymes which just don’t work (era/theatre, stench/retch) and a number of times where lines need one more or one less syllable in order to scan. The rhyme detracts from the experience of reading the book aloud.
I’m a huge fan of Matt Stanton’s hilarious picturebook This is a Ball, which he created with Beck Stanton. His illustrations in Dinosaur Dump are quite different, as they are coloured digitally, and look like a television cartoon. Still Stanton manages to make a book about poo cute, which is quite the achievement. Child readers may enjoy finding the frog on each page and watching its reactions to events.
Consider your tolerance for scatological humour before purchasing this book, as it is likely to be well loved by children.
Reviewed by Lian Beveridge