The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek

Strange, but if I were to pick the two books that have had the biggest influence on my life, this would be one of them--the other being The Brother Karamazov (but that's another review).I remember reading this book, just before my tenth birthday. The story was so dramatic, so moving (remember--I'm nine years old here), the characters so vivid--even though I knew it was fiction, that there really wasn't any stegosaurus (never mind a shy one who spoke english & wagged his tail like a dog), that after finishing it, I cried harder than I ever remember crying in my life. NOTE: The stegosaurus does not die--nobody dies. But somehow, that made it worse for me--The seemly imposible bind of a continued lonely existance for the stegosaurus: too shy to meet anyone, too social not to. So while I was unable to stop crying, barely able between the sobs to explain to my poor mother (a saint, believe me) the terrible agony of this non-existent dinosaur's life, refuting all of my mother's suggestions about what the stegosaurus might have done in his new life away from Cricket Creek, at the same time I knew I loved this book. This book was the first book that really touched me--a book that communicated real emotion, that moved me more than anything else ever had.A book about two kids and a talking dinosaur, written five years before I was born. I still love this book, because it was the first book that made me cry--and from that moment on, I knew I would always love books....because every once in awhile, they can make you cry about things that do not even exist.Would a hip hop happening kid of today like this book? I do not know. I still love it. I bought it for my nieces, but I think it was a little to square for them. But many kids today still read (and cry over) Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. So who knows...And while you are at it, read Sid Fleishman's Mr. Mysterious & Company. That book is even better than Shy Stegosaurus....

George is strong, loyal and shy. He's also a Stegosaurus dinosaur. When Joan and Joey Brown first meet George while hunting around in the dessert for a fossil, they meet George and life is never the same again! George tries his best to help the twins make money to finance their mother's dry little ranch on Cricket Creek. Their adventures include George taking on an airplane (he thinks it is a Pteranodon), and going after a bank robber! With black-and-white illustrations by Hubert Buel, Evelyn Lampman's The Shy Stegosaurus Of Cricket Creek is wonderful reading, and ideal for young readers ages 8 to 12. Also highly recommended are Lampman's other children's books, The Shy Stegosaurus Of Indian Springs; The City Under The Back Steps; and Rusty's Space Ship.

Last year I bought a used copy of this book for $60, and considered it a bargin! I loved this book as a child and wanted to share it with my eight year old daughter in hopes that she would enjoy it as much as I did at her age. She does, and I'm hoping that the sequel, "The Shy Stegosaurus of Indian Springs" will also be reprinted.

I read this book years ago, about 1964. It has been an all-time favorite. Beautifully written. Anyone who reads this book is going to love George the Stegosaurus and his two friends, Joey and Joan, the children who found him. This is a wonderful book to read to your older children, age 10 more or less. I suggest we all read this book again for old-times sake!! Enjoy.

By Christie Schultz I'm currently looking for titles by an author that I remember with fondness from my own childhood. I am a teacher, and have been trying to find them for my students, and my own son. E.S. Lampman wrote not only about Native Americans, but about fantasy worlds which put science fiction effectively into the hands of young people. The first two are the "Shy Stegosaurus" books. I found one of them listed and it is "hard to find"; the first is "The Shy Stegosaurus of Indian Springs". It's about a stegosaurus which not unreasonably has a weird liking for bananas (the more ripe, the better), and at some point it is labled as an Indian spirit by the local Native American Shaman. You're right, it's a great story! The second book is "The Shy Stegosaurous of Cricket Creek", the story line of which I forget other than a brother and sister find the last living dinosaur, and it can talk to them. The children are out riding horses in the canyon, and suddenly they see the rock face move...the dinosaur has to live near a mineral spring to survive.... Lampman effectively uses biological concepts like natural camoflage of animals as plot devices, makes reasonable guesses about their dietary needs, and as well she shows an effective grasp of Native American cultural issues. One of her later sci-fi books, "Rusty's Spaceship", was pure fantasy with the weird visits to various planets in the solar system, but it is such a ripping good story that questionable science facts become immaterial! (Jules Verne wasn't accurate either, but he's still in print!). In fact, reading it as an adult, I see it for what it is, the book is a child's dream of what might really be on Jupiter (creatures made of gas bags) or on Mars (armies of flying ants) or how it might be to take your homemade spaceship into space. Another title by this author is "City Under the Back Steps", and it's a precursor to "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" and a semi-steal from L.F Baum's "Policeman Bluejay" (another rarity from 1910 or so). Storyline: two children are bitten by the Queen ant and shrink down to ant size....and learn a good deal about the life of a hive of ants. Lampman had a very pithy sense of humor I thought at the time, and I enjoyed these books, and others by her, very much as a child. I wish they were around for youngsters today.