Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct (review)

Poor Edwina. Not knowing that she is extinct, the dinosaur happily blends in with her town, performing chores that tax those of less-than-dinosaur height and spreading carbohydrate cheer with her famous chocolate-chip cookies. Noxious know-it-all Reginald Von Hoobie Doobie seeks to put an end to all this foolishness. He knows that Edwina by right should not exist, no matter how tempting her chocolate-chip cookies are, and he sets out to prove it. Alas, the only one who will listen to his proofs is Edwina herself. One might expect that Edwina would be reasoned out of existence, but c'mon, this is Mo Willems—trust humor, charm, and a nature inclined toward benevolence to win out over something as fragile as reason. One can also trust clean, friendly, energetic art with pure, quiet swaths of color; more than any other of his offerings so far, this one is haunted by the ghost of Charles Schultz in the facial expressions of the children and the Peanuts pathos of the plot. A dependence on pale blues and grays with minimal contrast in hue mutes background noise throughout, but especially on pages where the figures are black and white and the only color is the blue background. These documentary-style pages allow Reginald's frenetic, moody expressivism to take center stage even while they emphasize the pale futility of his endeavors. Both the pigeon and Knuffle Bunny make cameo appearances for the observant fan, and let's face it—Willems is making fans of us all.