Book: Lulu and the Brontosaurus

Overview
Judith Viorst’s Lulu and the Brontosaurus is a brisk, witty chapter book about a headstrong child who discovers that wanting something very much is not the same as deserving it. A playful narrator, frequent asides to the reader, and brisk, rhythmic prose turn a simple premise, a birthday wish gone wild, into a fairy-tale-flavored fable about manners, empathy, and the power of the word “please.” The book marries classic storybook logic with a modern comic voice, making Lulu’s journey feel both timeless and freshly cheeky.

Plot Summary
Lulu is used to getting her way. She tantrums, wheedles, and shrieks until adults surrender, so when her birthday approaches she sets her sights on the most impossible present she can imagine: a brontosaurus. Her parents, after a remarkably calm exchange, say no, sensibly pointing out that brontosauruses are enormous, extinct, and unsuitable for the living room. Unaccustomed to refusals, Lulu stamps, howls, and slams doors, then decides that if her parents won’t get her a dinosaur, she will simply fetch one herself.

Suitcase in hand and song on her lips, Lulu marches into the forest, a place governed by storybook rules rather than field guides. Along the way she encounters creatures bigger and toothier than she is, a snake who coils, a bear who rumbles, a tiger who prowls. Lulu meets each with supreme self-confidence and a bossy glare, assuming the world will submit as readily as grown-ups always have. Her bluster works until she finally meets a brontosaurus, towering and calm, who greets her with impeccable politeness.

Lulu orders the dinosaur to come home as her birthday pet. The brontosaurus refuses, not with menace but with logic and a gentle smile, explaining that he has always wanted a pet as well, and he chooses Lulu. The story flips: the would-be owner becomes the pet. The brontosaurus treats Lulu kindly, lodges her in a leafy bower, and expects her to be as accommodating to his wishes as she expected others to be to hers. For the first time, Lulu feels the sting of someone else’s desire pressing against her own.

Ending Variations
The narrator, having warned that this is a made-up story and therefore adjustable, offers multiple endings. In one, Lulu, shaken and newly thoughtful, tries a small but revolutionary act: she asks politely. The word “please” does not magically erase consequences, but it opens a conversation. Seeing Lulu’s change of heart, the brontosaurus reconsiders keeping a pet who doesn’t truly want to be kept. Lulu returns home, newly eager to use her manners and more open to wishes that suit everyone involved.

Another ending leans into the fable’s mischief, imagining a longer, friendlier companionship between girl and dinosaur before practicalities win out. A third offers a sterner lesson about stubbornness and its costs. The narrator invites readers to choose, implicitly highlighting that stories, and behavior, can go different ways depending on the choices we make.

Themes and Tone
At its core, the book is about entitlement meeting empathy. Lulu’s journey shifts from grabbing to negotiating, from assuming to asking. Viorst’s voice, teasing, conspiratorial, and fond of repeating rhythms, keeps the moral feather-light even as the lesson lands. The forest menagerie and the dazzlingly courteous brontosaurus embody the idea that strength can be gentle and that real power often appears in the shape of self-control. The alternative endings underscore personal agency: Lulu’s growth depends on whether she softens her demand into a request, learns to hear no, and makes room in her wants for other creatures’ wishes too.