Dinosaurs in space! How can you go wrong?

Anthony and Carlos turned us on to a book they checked out from the library featuring a dinosaur hero named Captain Raptor. Anthony showed it to Isaac -- all he had to see was the cover, full of ferocious-looking dinosaurs, and suddenly he would surely die if we didn't read it right now.



It turns out he could be just a little patient while I requested it from another branch of our county library. The guy who wrote it is a professional children's book illustrator. He and the actual illustrator, a childhood friend of his, set it up like a comic book except about 50 billion times more gorgeously illustrated. All you need to know is the following and you will understand why I MUST INSIST YOU SHOW THIS BOOK TO ANYONE BETWEEN THE AGES OF 4 and 8. Especially boys.

*It's about an intelligent race of dinosaurs.
*They live on another planet.
*They are also astronauts.
*And fearless explorers.
*There are crazy monsters that they must battle.
*They meet aliens.
*The writing is so campy as to be hilariously awesome. Every fourth page ends with "Is THIS the end of Captain Raptor?"

As if that wasn't enough, there is a sequel where they battle pirates. Pirates!



These guys are GENIUSES.