If kids were in charge of the world, there would be a lot more french fries. And huge twisty slides everywhere. Trampolines. Swimming pools. Candy by the bucket. Rollercoasters in school playgrounds. You get the idea.

And the creatures! We’d have pet monsters. Frogs in our bathtubs. Ponies? One would arrive on everyone’s fifth birthday. Automatically. No wishing or pleading necessary. Dragons and unicorns would absolutely exist. And of course dinosaurs would not be extinct.

And all of those exciting characters you might want to spend time with? Magicians? Witches? Wizards? Pirates? Trolls? A sorceress or two? Robots who do chores and serve customized ice cream sundaes? Of course they would be around. They might even live next door.

There would be many an adventure. Like treasure hunting. Sword fights. Bewitching things. Time travel.

When books hold promise of all of this fun and adventure? When they make us giggle? When they are silly and full of hoped for possibility? Then they have big time kid appeal.

Big time kid appeal means children fall in love with a book because it has a whole bunch of things they adore all in one place. It’s meant just for them. When we read them these books aloud, big kinda surprised eyes look up at us like we have just granted permission to eat pizza and milkshakes while having a bubble bath with a new puppy. “Ah, you get it! Fun!”

Josh Funk gets fun. He gets kid appeal. He offers up some of those things children wish for. The adventure. The duelling. Finding treasure. And he makes up the best characters! First it was royal breakfast food who raced about in the fridge.

Now he has imagined pirate dinosaurs. Who hunt treasure and battle.

Kid appeal and then some.

Author Josh Funk gives a sneak peek:

We’re Pirasaurs! We’re Pirasaurs!

We grunt and roar and sneer!

We’ll steal your books with tails and hooks

And own the blogosphere!

We’re Pirasaurs! We’re Pirasaurs!

We pose a giant threat!

We’ll slash and duel and soon we’ll rule

The world-wide internet!

We’re Pirasaurs! We’re Pirasaurs!

Our story is fantastic!

This grand hardback by Funk & Slack

Is published by Scholastic!

… and will be available on August 30th wherever books are sold!

So be on the lookout! The Pirasaurs are arriving soon.

Hint, hint, that’s them rowing towards you! (Don’t claim you haven’t been warned!)

Thanks to the creative energies of author Josh Funk and illustrator Michael Slack, there will be many a young reader asking for this book to be read aloud just once more!

I am thrilled to celebrate the happy anticipation of this new release!

Don’t you wish you were a pirasaur?