Publisher's Synopsis
Masked Dinosaur is an up-to-the minute lesson for kids, teaching them how to help keep themselves and others from illness when a germ threatens a community. We need to keep our hands clean, sneeze or cough into our arms, and sometimes even to wear a mask. In the same breath, the story reminds kids of the commonalities, and humanity, of all people -- regardless of age or skin color.
Derry the Dinosaur doesn't want to wear his mask, primarily because he doesn't understand the need. He assumes that, if he cannot see the germs, they are not there. Besides, he rarely ever gets sick, he says. But when Derry learns that germs can be there even when he cannot see them, Derry reverses into near panic. It is Ryan, the boy, who helps his friend Derry approach the problem with calm and reason.
We face so many difficult problems in our world. As this story is published, the Covid-19 virus stands prominently among them, along with political, social, and racial discord. So many of these problems could be greatly reduced if everyone followed one, simple rule: Be kind. That is the greater message of this and the other Ryan and Derry stories.
