Last Laughs

August 1, 2017
"Trilobites the Dust," and so do the rest of a cast of extinct creatures in this sequel (prequel?) to Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs (2012).In chronological order from the Paleozoic to the Cenozoic eras, dinosaurs, prehistoric reptiles, and early mammals offer memento mori in pithy verse. "Iguanodon, Alas Long Gone," for example runs: "Iguano dawned, / Iguano dined, / Iguano done, / Iguano gone." With similar brevity, "Plesiosaur Sticks His Neck Out" of Loch Ness and has it chopped through by a Pict (a footnote admits the anachronism), and unknown agents leave "Pterrible Pterosaur Pterminated." In later times, a saber-toothed cat ("Tiger, tiger, hunting bright / near the tar pits, late at night"), a dire wolf, and a woolly mammoth are all depicted trapped in the gooey muck. Each poem comes with an explanatory note, and a prose afterword titled "A Little About Layers" discusses how the fossil record works. Timmins reflects this secondary informational agenda in his illustrations without taking it too seriously--providing a spade-bearded, popeyed paleontologist who resembles a spud in shape and color to usher readers through galleries of fossil remnants or fleshed-out specimens meeting their ends with shocked expressions. The poetry and prose form more of an uneasy detente than an integrated whole, but the comical pictures and the wordplay in these dino demises provide sufficient lift. (Picture book/poetry. 7-10)

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October 1, 2017

Gr 2-5-In this follow-up to Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs, Lewis and Yolen accomplish a rare feat-creating a sequel superior to the first. Timmins illustrates the demise of prehistoric creatures using an appropriately somber palette. The collection of poetry is certainly an introduction to dark humor, but given the well-known fact of all prehistoric animals' extinction, it is decidedly less macabre than the earlier title. After all, as the first poem appropriately reminds readers, "Do we miss them? Now and then./But we survivors say, 'Amen.'" Though the cover illustration depicts extinction by asteroid, many of the featured beasts meet more commonplace demises by predators. Several lesser-known animals are included, from the trilobyte to the dire wolf and to the "vegan" dinosaur, Minmi. Lewis and Yolen seamlessly integrate nonfiction paleontological information, subdividing the book according to prehistoric eras and periods. They also follow each poem with a concise factual note, clearly delineating fact from creative license. Older children will enjoy punny inclusions such as "puncturation mark," and adult readers may reminisce over a nod to William Blake: "Tiger, tiger, hunting bright/near the tar pits, late at night." The text ends with an invitation for readers to create their own dino epitaphs, a perfect classroom or poetry celebration connection. VERDICT A witty poetry read-aloud that just may spark independent research in dinosaur enthusiasts.-Maria O'Toole, Carroll Manor Elementary School, Adamstown, MD

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Starred review from July 30, 2012
Lewis and Yolen team up for a darkly funny homage to the dearly departed—those with feathers, hooves, tails, and fins. An axe leans against a blood-stained stump while three feathers drift nearby (“Sorry, no leftovers,” reads a turkey’s epitaph), and a barracuda is destroyed by a superior predator: “My teeth were vicious;/ my bite was hateful./
A great white met me—/ the date was fateful.” Timmins’s bleak, blood-spattered palette and zombielike animals create an appropriately dismal environment for the funereal text; lovers of the macabre will cackle over these unfortunate demises. Ages 7–10.

January 1, 2018
Two veteran children's poets create a series of sardonic poems imagining the final moments for a variety of prehistoric creatures, arranged chronologically from the Paleozoic to the Cenozoic eras. The book's humor doesn't always land, and the cartoony digital illustrations (which include a wild-eyed, bearded paleontologist) are more frenzied than funny. Brief facts below each verse add a useful scientific aspect to the volume.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)