Attention Auto Aficionados, Jurassic Junkies and Diehard Dinomaniacs!

Buckle Up and Start Your Engines! Vroom! Zoom! We’re off on a prehysteric prehistoric poetry adventure sure to get your motors humming.

If you relish turbo-charged humor, well-oiled rhymes, fun facts and genius cartoons, steer your way right into Dinos That Drive by Suzy Levinson and Dustin Harbin (Tundra, 2025). This well-versed vehicle consisting of 21 poems is packed with fossilized fun from brontos to buses and triceratops to tractors, with friendly herbivores and one terrifying carnivore throwing a wacky wrench in the works (say that fast five times). Look, here they come now, roarin’ down the highway . . .

DINOS . . . GOING?

You've never seen a dinosaur
that's into driving cars?
You've never seen a dinosaur
that flies a jumbo jet?
You've never seen a dinosaur
that rockets to the stars?
Then buckle up! Let's take a ride . . .
YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET!

The concept of putting dinosaurs behind the wheel is brilliant: Dinos + Things That Go = Kid Heaven. Dustin Harbin’s imaginative, immersive Scarry-esque cartoons expand upon the captivating humor of Levinson’s rollicking poems via zany details and cool sight gags.

Dino fans will be happy to see their faves represented (brontosaurus, stegosaurus, triceratops, T-Rex), along with some less familiar ones whose names are quite a mouthful (pachycephalosaurus). As for the vehicles? What a fabulous convoy traveling on land (race cars, taxis, sedans, pick-up trucks, vans, motorcycles, campers, bulldozers, buses, steamrollers, stretch limos, trolley cars, trains), over and under the sea (submarine, riverboat), and up in the sky (chopper, airplane).

What makes Levinson’s poems truly rock is how she’s humanized the dinosaurs and how their names and/or traits match the type of vehicle they drive (with cool wordplay, of course). For example, in “Triceratop-Down” we see a triceratop who drives a topless jeep so the horns on his head won’t tear the roof to shreds, and “Velociraptor Velocity” is about a group of racers who love to show their “need for speed” as they careen around the track. Love how Suzy incorporates facts in a way that doesn’t scream ‘educational’, and it’s good to see female dinosaurs get their fair share of the spotlight. 🙂

Kids will enjoy seeing dinosaurs in familiar scenarios: a maiasaura (whose name means “good mother lizard”) barely leaving her minivan while managing her busy schedule; a friendly stegosaurus driving an ice cream truck; a bambiraptor in her helicopter reporting the latest traffic news. And the menacing, always ravenous T-Rex? His four-part “Car-nivore” story, in which he drives a taxicab, trolley car and stretch limo (collecting ‘passengers’), appears as a running joke throughout the book, cleverly ramping up the suspense.

Don’t worry: there’s even a poem about an electric car to counter the gas guzzlers (a fossil fuel no-no). Of course it’s driven by Troodon, one of the smarter dinosaurs (because of her big brain).

Yet another genius touch: instead of ho-hum side notes, fun and fascinating facts are shared via two tiny dino guides offering speech bubble commentary (they are adorable), while dinosaur name pronunciations are unobtrusively provided below poem titles.

Young readers will revel in this book from the first poem till the last (which explains why the dinos disappeared). Levinson and Harbin have created a wild and crazy poetic ride: a blast to read with a busy visual narrative they’ll want to pore over while identifying the different dinos and vehicles. I predict this one will become a beloved dinosaur classic — defying extinction. 🙂

Enjoy these sample poems:

THUNDER LIZARD

BOOM, BOOM! VROOM, VROOM!
Do you hear that engine roar?
ZIP, ZIP! ZOOM, ZOOM!
Check it out! A dinosaur!

Brontosaurus on the move!
Heavy metal! in the groove!
Helmet on his tiny head!
THUNDER LIZARD, BORN AND BRED!

BOOM, BOOM! VROOM, VROOM!
Motorcycle herbivore!
ZIP, ZIP! ZOOM, ZOOM!
Catch you later, dinosaur!

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VELOCIRAPTOR VELOCITY

Velociraptors, start your engines . . . 
GO! And show your need for speed!
Dinos race on steaming asphalt.
Look! That car just took the lead!

Small and sleek and burning rubber,
squealing round and round the track,
race cars chase the screeching leader!
What a ruthless raptor pack!

Tails are whipping! Teeth are nipping!
Grunting, growling, dashing, gnashing!
Faster, faster, fierce and frenzied!
Almost flipping! Almost CRASHING?!

Going, going, so ferocious!
Final stretch and then it's done!
The finish line! The checkered flag!
The leader squawks! Woo-hoo, SHE WON!

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LOTS OF AQUILOPS

Aquilops go camping
in one old RV.
Before they get going,
the whole family
of one hundred cousins
from one cul-de-sac
snag backpacks and snacks
and they hop in the back.
(Of course they all fit!
It's no trouble at all,
since every Aquilops
is shockingly small.)
They roll over hilltops,
to see what they'll see . . . 
Aquilops love camping
in one old RV!

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DINOS THAT DRIVE
written by Suzy Levinson
illustrated by Dustin Harbin
published by Tundra Books, September 30, 2025
Poetry Picture Book for ages 3+, 40 pp.

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Lovely and talented author, poet and speaker Laura Purdie Salas is hosting the Roundup this week. Be sure to check out the full menu of poetic goodness being served up around the blogosphere. Have a good weekend!

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*Interior spreads text copyright © 2025 Suzy Levinson, illustrations © 2025 Dustin Harbin, published by Tundra Books/Penguin Random House CA. All rights reserved.

**Copyright © 2025 Jama Rattigan of Jama’s Alphabet Soup. All rights reserved.