I had a list of online reader copies. And Diary of a Dinoghost boos … I mean books … one and two kept coming up. I figured I had a few days to read them as the first Unlikely Friends was due in August 2026 and two is due in November 2026 under the name, Sworn Enemies. They are both written and illustrated by Monica Arnaldo and are part of the A Branches Book grouping. Anyway, I kept putting them off, but one day I needed a quick lunch read and less than a 100 pages later book one was done (book two didn’t stand a chance the next day).
Book one Diary of a Dinoghost V01Unlikely Friends introduces us to Cobble. He is a dinosaur ghost. He will tell us a lot of fun things, such as he has forgotten how many days he has been a ghost (was it 36,500,236,001 or 36,500,236,002 days?), how human short necks are a crime against nature and more observations in his naive, child-like voice. And because he’s forgotten the exact days, he decides he is going to start over on Day One in a new journal. We learn it is hard for a ghost dinosaur to hold a pencil, it is good to keep your routine, friends are nice but when they are only a humming fancy ghost lady with her her stereotypically shaped ghost friend Greg who only says Boo, and a human boy who can’t see you and puts ketchup on everything (and he means eeeverything), you might get lonely, even if you say you’re not.
We then get a goldfish pet for Kevin (ketchup boy) and she turns into a ghost soon enough. So book one is the adventures of getting Bonny the Goldfish to the ocean. Lots of mischief and mayhem happen. We learn that 10-year-old twin girl neighbors can be really mean, weird and great nemesis. And that you might have a ghost fish in a bowl, but the bowl is still a real one and can’t float through walls of treehouses where you are trapped (in book two). 
And speaking of book two, Diary of a Dinoghost V02 Sworn Enemies, we pick up where we left off in book one with more adventures as they try to get to the ocean, spooky stories of forest monsters, confessions, learn real friends might get exasperated from time to time, but they care and will help, and seagulls hold grudges. Both books give a lot of humor, silliness and just an edge of thriller adventure. The lessons we as readers (ages strong aged six reader to young 10; or read to) are basic things. Like about friendship and sometimes the water is saltier (and scarier) than we thought on the other side.
While I enjoyed reading about Cobble’s adventures, this series was not WOW for me. However, I liked it enough so I would have gotten it for my nephews and recommend it highly now. Oh, I won’t say a lot about the illustrations as I’m assuming they are simpler and black and white minimalistically drawn, but as they were reader copies, I reserve comment until I see the final form.
And if you think this book is just hijinks galore, there are a few questions at the end of the book that allows your readers to think about what was read, they could “write a book review” on a question, or just something y’all can talk about.
cbr18bingo One for the first book in a series
