The traditional Christmas poem gets a wild and woolly new treatment in this wonderfully illustrated book, sure to attract dinosaur fans. A young boy is asleep, but there arose such a clatter, so to speak, from the museum across the street that he heads over to see what's up. What's up is the dinosaurs, starting to wake from their millions-of-years' sleep. Bones turn into scales and feathers, and soon the huge reptiles are on the move. For a moment the boy wonders if an approaching dino wants to eat him, but there's a bit of mistletoe hanging around that leads to a kiss instead of a chomp. The text mostly keeps to the rhythm and scan of the original, though it goes on much longer and occasionally takes a rhyming roundabout. It's the acrylic artwork that's the standout here. The well-crafted dinosaurs, in eye-popping colors, really do seem as if they've come to life, and their ferocity is neatly combined with their jollity. Included is a CD with dinosaur-themed Christmas songs (lyrics appear at the end of the book) as well as the story read aloud by The Today Show's Al Roker.--Cooper, Ilene Copyright 2008 Booklist

Dinosaur devotees will devour this imaginative take-off on the much-parodied holiday rhyme, with this rendition set in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The story features the museum's dinosaurs and a little boy who lives directly across the street. He is awakened on Christmas Eve by noises coming from the museum and joins the dinosaurs in their holiday celebration. The dinosaurs grow fantastic rainbow-hued scales and feathers on this magical night and suspend their natural tendencies to eat each other, snacking on pterosaur-shaped gingerbread instead. The dinosaurs and the little boy dance around a Yule log, sing holiday songs, decorate a tree and welcome Santasaurus and his eight "dino-deer." Children will enjoy Hale's exuberant illustrations, the large trim size allowing some huge views of dinosaurs in mid-celebration in the museum and in mid-flight with Santasaurus. The final pages of text present the words to dinosaur carols (more parodies, in the vein of "Hark! The Pterodactyls Sing"), and a CD of the songs and story text is also included. (Picture book. 4-9) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.