April 1, 2025 

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When eleven-year-old Nell embarks on a dreaded weekend visit to her eccentric grandpa's antique-ridden house, she witnesses him getting swallowed whole by a mysterious briefcase. With no choice but to follow, Nell plunges into the unknown, emerging in a prehistoric world teetering on the brink of annihilation.

 

In THE LITTLE CRETACEOUS (18k words) Nell teams up with Kevin, a teenage repo agent with a secret, to rescue Grandpa and escape the past before the comet hits. But Grandpa isn’t exactly cooperative, he’s too busy treating the dinosaur extinction as a once-in-a-lifetime research opportunity. Worse, the time-traveling Martin Case that brought them here may be broken… or booby-trapped.

 

As Nell dodges snarky velociraptors, bureaucratic triceratops, and a very persistent time traveler with sinister motives, she begins to unravel the truth: the Martin Case wasn’t the first, and it won’t be the last. To get her family home, she must face a world-ending disaster, survive a dino-political meltdown, and outsmart forces that want to rewrite history itself.

 

Complete with dinosaur diplomacy, a backpack full of melting chocolate, and one egg that could shock the world more than the latest pyramid discovery, The Little Cretaceous blends the adventure of Goosebumps with the comic absurdity of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. In short, a punchy, middle-grade chapter book with series potential.

 

See flipbook below.

 

Michael Graziano is a neuroscientist, author, composer, occasional ventriloquist, and currently a professor of psychology at Princeton University. He has written 5 books on science (one was a finalist for the Penn-Faulkner award), 3 novels, and 3 chapter books for children (one was awarded the Moonbeam prize for children’s literature). He has written for the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and many other media outlets.

 

Tom LaBaff - After graduating from Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, he spent the first decade of his illustration career making animated films for Walt Disney Studios. He has illustrated numerous books for publishers such as The Town of Zack for Worthwhile, and Aly Cat Takes on First Grade for Scholastic. Tom has 2 new picture books coming out this year. Most days you can find him walking the early morning sand in Vero Beach.
 

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