Chapter 1: A Very Tiny Egg#

In Green Valley, Mama Rex had a nest of big round eggs.

The eggs were warm. The eggs were brown. And the eggs were big — as big as boulders.

But one egg was not big at all.

One egg was tiny. It was no bigger than a pinecone, and it sat right in the middle of all the big ones.

“That little egg will never hatch,” said the loud dinosaurs by the river.

Mama Rex did not listen to them. She kept the tiny egg warm, every day and every night.

One sunny morning, the big eggs went crack… crack… CRACK! Out came big, strong baby dinosaurs with big, loud roars.

Then the tiny egg went tap… tap… tap.

Out came a tiny foot. Then a tiny tail. Then a tiny face with two bright eyes.

It was the smallest T. Rex anyone had ever seen.

“Hello, little one,” said Mama Rex. “I will call you Tina.”

Tina looked up at her brothers and sisters. They were already taller than she was. She looked down at her own small feet.

“Mama,” said Tina in a tiny voice, “am I too small?”

Mama Rex smiled and gave her a warm nuzzle.

“You are exactly the right size,” she said, “to be you.”

Tina hoped that was true. But deep down, she still felt very, very small.