Dinosaur Rodeo

Readers will be instantly intrigued by Dawson’s Dinosaur Rodeo. The detailed and vivid cover art features a cowboy riding a T-Rex, holding on tight, one arm in the air, as if he were riding a bronco in a rodeo. After leaving the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, a casual conversation about dinosaurs begins between a grandson and his grandfather. The boy, still enthralled by the dinosaur exhibit, asks his grandfather if he lived during the time of dinosaurs. Instead of dismissing the question, the grandfather responds, “I used to be a champion Broncosaurus rider.”

The quirky tale of the grandfather’s adventures rounding up broncos every spring for a rodeo is accompanied by colourful illustrations of cowboys on horses, emerging from the dust, riding alongside a plethora of dinosaurs. While the young grandson is captivated, his older sister remains skeptical about these tales of bulldogging a Triceratops in the dinosaur rodeo, driving in a Struthiomimus chuck wagon races or calf roping Velociraptors. Despite knowing her grandfather’s tendency to exaggerate, she can’t help but imagine dinosaurs lurking out in the Canadian Badlands near Drumheller, Alberta, wondering if his stories are true.

In the immensely popular field of dinosaur titles, Dinosaur Rodeo will stand out as it merges two genres, westerns and fantasy incorporating dinosaurs into the narrative, and it imagines a world where they coexisted. Instead of riding broncos, the cowboys and rodeo clowns ride, chase and race dinosaurs of all different sizes. The striking illustrations capture a historical western landscape unaffected by development and populated by dinosaurs and cowboys. The grandfather entertains the children on the ride home from the museum as they drive through the badlands. The colorful illustrations reflect a desolate landscape along the journey home. For young readers yearning for more dinosaur facts, the inside cover art features a catalogue of dinosaur facts.

Although this is the first book Sheldon Dawson —who has illustrated more than 40 children’s books — has both written and illustrated, the book is still a collaborative effort. Jaxon Wright, a seven-year-old on the autism spectrum who is a dinosaur enthusiast, contributed dinosaur facts, which were also fact checked and expanded upon by the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology and the Philip J. Curries Dinosaur Museum. Dinosaur Rodeo will appeal to children who enjoy an engaging story and lively illustrations; it also holds appeal for young dinosaur aficionados.