By Carla Mae Jansen
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
A Dinosaur Made Me Sneeze is an adventure told by Martin, a boy that has just sneezed snot all over everyone’s dinner. In his haste to excuse himself he blames a T-Rex and goes back in time to explain how the dust that dinosaur stirred up caused the fateful sneeze that ruined everybody’s appetite.
This book is written in rhyme and done with quite a bit of skill. It’s not easy explaining science and history through millions of years using verse, but Carla Mae Jansen not only brings actual words such as igneous, metamorphic, and calcium carbonate into the mix, but humor as well. The dinosaurs are not drawn for accuracy but have character, personality, and great expression and compliment the verse perfectly as Martin explains why his sneeze started with dust stomped up by a T-rex millions of years ago and sinks into the ocean becoming compacted and sedimentary. The story goes on to include volcanoes, lava, rock cycles, earthquakes and more. The facts on each page are quite informative too and help explain processes like erosion and sedimentation.
A Dinosaur Made Me Sneeze gets five stars for the simple reason that it makes science fun. There’s learning on many levels, and the science education is effortless throughout. All readers will enjoy it, even the adults, and that is the mark of a great children’s book, when everybody is captivated by the adventure. And let's face it, any children's book with the word 'snot' in it will be a big hit.
Reviewer: S. Stoltz