Andrew R. Dinosaur loved to roar.
Each night, he begged his father to tell him a story. “The one about roaring? Please?”
“Back when I was a wrestler,” Andrew’s father told the family, “I used to win every one of my matches by ROARING my opponents into submission!”
“It was really your father’s breath that scared them into submission,” Andrew’s mother said.
Andrew loved to show off his own Dinosaur family talents, just like his father. Sometimes this got him into trouble, like at school during attendance.
“Andrew R. Dinosaur? Are you present?” asked Mrs. Tricera.
“Present,” Andrew replied. Then he wagged his tail, looked around, and proclaimed, “And the R. stands for ROAARRR!!!”
“Roaring is not allowed during attendance,” Mrs. Tricera reminded him.
Roaring also got Andrew into trouble during arts and crafts.
“What beautiful butterfly wings you made!” exclaimed Mr. Stegosauro.
“These wings?” asked Andrew. “These aren’t butterfly wings.” He wagged his tail, looked around, and flapped his arms up and down. “ROAR! I’m a dragon-saur!”
Suddenly, the entire class had dragon-saur wings. Mr. Stegosauro decided there would be no more wings that day.
Andrew also got into trouble at home, especially when he ate his favorite meal. He wagged his tail, looked around, and took a big CHOMP! on…
“DINOSAUR MACARONI! ROAR! DINOSAUR MACARONI EATS SPAGHETTI FOR DINNER! DINOSAURUS MACARONIUS!”
Andrew’s mother did not approve. Andrew’s father was not amused. Andrew’s sister was covered in sauce.
“From this day on, there will be no more roaring,” declared Andrew’s father.
“But I need to roar,” protested Andrew as he retreated to bed. “I’m a Dinosaur.”
The next morning at school, Mrs. Tricera asked, “Andrew R. Dinosaur, are you present?”
“Present,” replied Andrew.
“Just…present?” asked Mrs. Tricera.
“Oh, yeah,” Andrew said glumly, “and the R. stands for ‘Rutherford.’ Andrew Rutherford Dinosaur.”
During arts and crafts, Mr. Stegosauro ducked for cover. “Dragon-saur wings again?!!”
Andrew looked down at his wings and sighed. “Dragon-saurs aren’t real.”
Andrew’s parents were also puzzled when he didn’t eat his favorite meal.
“It’s just not any fun to eat dinosaur macaroni if the dinosaurs can’t roar,” replied Andrew, and he shuffled off to bed.
At school the next morning, Andrew walked quietly down the hall with the rest of his class.
He paused in front of the bulletin board: “Story Writing Contest. Stories to be Read Aloud at After-School Assembly.”
“Writing contest? If only it were a roaring contest, I could win that,” he told himself.
Something made his tail tingle with excitement. Andrew had an idea!
Once home, Andrew sprinted to his bedroom and began working on a super top secret project.
When the day of the writing contest arrived, he was ready to reveal his work.
Andrew listened to the other students read their stories. There were tales about robot-saurs, and princess-saurs, and pirate-saurs, but he knew each story was missing one thing.
“And now,” announced Mrs. Tricera, “our next and final story, written by Andrew R. Dinosaur.”
Andrew strode up to the stage and cleared his throat. “Long ago,” he began, “before things could roar, there was a dinosaur named Rex…”
“One day,” said Andrew, “Rex found out that he had a super power.”
And with this, Andrew let out the loudest…
Longest…
Most thunderous ROOAAARRR that rumbled through the auditorium and made the entire audience’s scales shiver.
Andrew gazed out at the stunned crowd. “Oh, no,” he thought. “I’m in trouble again.”
But soon he heard a group of familiar “ROARs!” back from the crowd.
Even Andrew’s teachers roared back their approval!
From that night forward, with the entire Dinosaur family gathered around, Andrew got to tell his own tale – and he was always sure to include one thing. After all, he was sure the “R.”
stood for…
ROAARRR!!!
