Please Don't Feed the Dinosaurs

By Corinna Turner

IN A JURASSIC FUTURE, SOME STILL CHOOSE FREEDOM—DESPITE THE DANGERS.
It takes more than a T. rex scratching its back on his Habitat Vehicle to alarm young hunter Joshua—he’s used to living close to nature. But a routine visit to the zoo to deliver a new velociraptor turns deadly when he comes face-to-face with an eleven-foot allosaur called Gold. He knew her when she was a tiny chick—is he a friend from the past—or dinner?
Meanwhile, Darryl and her brother, Harry, are taken completely by surprise when their father remarries. Their new step-mom is a glamorous fashion designer who’s never been outside the city’s electric fences. How will she cope with a life of dinosaur farming? All Darryl can do is try to get her new stepmom safely to the farm. But once you’re unSPARKed, things don’t always go to plan...
From the Carnegie Medal Nominated author of the I AM MARGARET books, adventure lovers will love this fast-paced, fantastically fun series, which has been compared to Jurassic Park and Mad Max.
PLEASE NOTE: Please Don’t Feed the Dinosaurs knits together the original unSPARKed book 1, DRIVE!, with the short story ‘A Dino Whisperer at the Zoo,’ along with a small amount of original material.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Corinna Turner
• Release date: Apr 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781910806777

Corinna Turner

Corinna Turner has been writing since she was fourteen and likes strong protagonists with plenty of integrity. She has an MA in English from Oxford University, but has foolishly gone on to work with both children and animals! Juggling work with the disabled and being a midwife to sheep, she spends as much time as she can in a little hut at the bottom of the garden, writing.She is a Catholic Christian with roots in the Methodist and Anglican churches. A keen cinema-goer, she lives in the UK with her Giant African Land Snail, Peter, who has a six inch long shell and an even larger foot!

Book preview

PRAISE FOR CORINNA TURNER’S BOOKS

LIBERATION: nominated for the Carnegie Medal Award 2016.

ELFLING: 1st prize, Teen Fiction, CPA Book Awards 2019

I AM MARGARET & BANE’S EYES: finalists, CALA Award 2016/2018.

LIBERATION & THE SIEGE OF REGINALD HILL: 3rd place, CPA Book Awards 2016/2019.

Corinna Turner was awarded the St. Katherine Drexel Award in 2022.

PRAISE FOR ELFLING

I was instantly drawn in

EOIN COLFER, author of Artemis Fowl and former Irish Children’s Laureate

PRAISE FOR DRIVE!

What a terrifying futuristic world Turner has created! I am a huge fan of this author and am always impressed with how different all her stories are. Look forward to the next one in this series!

LESLEA WAHL, author of award-winning The Perfect Blindside

A cross between Jurassic World and Mad Max! Fun, fast paced. And sets up an incredible new world. I read it three times in two days!

STEVEN R. MCEVOY, BookReviewsAndMore Blogger and Top 500 Reviewer

Wow! So suspenseful you won't be able to put it down!

KATY HUTH JONES, author of Treachery and Truth

Jurassic Park fans will love this short!

CAROLYN ASTFALK, author of Rightfully Ours

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1

PLEASE DON’T FEED THE DINOSAURS

CORINNA TURNER

Copyright 2022 Corinna Turner

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License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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CONTENTS

A Note from the Author

1: JOSHUA

2: DARRYL

3: JOSHUA

4: DARRYL

5: JOSHUA

6: DARRYL

7: JOSHUA

8: DARRYL

9: JOSHUA

10: DARRYL

11: JOSHUA

12: DARRYL

13: JOSHUA

14: DARRYL

15: JOSHUA

16: DARRYL

17: JOSHUA

18: DARRYL

19: JOSHUA

20: DARRYL

21: JOSHUA

22: DARRYL

23: JOSHUA

24: DARRYL

25: JOSHUA

26: DARRYL

27: JOSHUA

28: DARRYL

29: JOSHUA

30: DARRYL

A TRULY RAPTOR-OUS WELCOME Sneak Peek

A VERY JURASSIC CHRISTMAS Sneak Peek

Other Books by Corinna Turner

About the Author

Connect with Corinna Turner

Boring Legal Bit

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A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

Long-term unSPARKed readers, please don’t be caught out—this isn’t an all-new unSPARKed tale!

Please Don’t Feed the Dinosaurs knits together two books previously published separately—the original book 1, DRIVE!, and the short story ‘A Dino Whisperer at the Zoo’—along with a small amount of original material, in order to make a better introduction to the series.

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JOSHUA

Tell that hunter-boy to hurry up. I haven’t got all day, snaps the man in the suit.

I glance out at the welcome party that stands on the obsoDeck. Ned Greyson, stocky and light-skinned, is Exception City Zoo’s Head Raptor Keeper. I know him moderately well—the Wilson HabVi has supplied quite a few critters to this zoo over the years. The young Hispanic man—older than me but with that wet-behind-the-ears air most city-boys have—is an eager young underling, or intern, or some-such. The pretty lady—of Cheyenne heritage, I think—is the zoo vet. And there’s the thin, pale man in a suit, looking down his nose at everyone, but especially at me in my camo-jacket and heavy boots. He hasn’t even spoken to me. Keeps passing things through Ned.

Ned doesn’t ‘tell me’ anything, he just screws up his face in apology and opens his hand in a ‘let it go’ gesture. He needn’t worry. The guy’s getting my goat but it takes more than that to blow my fuse.

There we go. As Silky the velociraptor finally steps off my Habitat Vehicle’s ramp into the zoo’s holding pen, I press the button to lift the ramp and seal the rear door. He skitters away nervously, but by the time I’ve dropped out of the HabVi and climbed up to the obsoDeck to join the group standing looking down into the pen, he’s run back up to the rear of the large grey vehicle where it’s parked flush with the gateway, begging to be let back in, peeping plaintively like he’s a juvenile again. Sorry, Silky, I tell him, raising my voice. This is your new home, now.

I ignore Suit-man and speak to Ned. Yep, one velociraptor, male, adult, and zoo-tame.

Silky scratches at the ’Vi with one wing-arm claw, shoots a nervous look around at the strange pen, then calls pathetically.

Ready to mate? queries Ned, a twinkle in his eye.

I grin. Yep. Though he ain’t cutting a very manly figure this moment, is he? Too much new.

Ned grins too, but he looks pleased. Silky is young and healthy, virtually adult size—as tall as a wolf and several times longer from nose to tail tip—and into his adult plumage, his unusually soft, sleek charcoal grey feathers set off nicely by his dark blue ruff. A real beauty, and a perfect zoo animal.

But Suit-man steps up to the edge of the obsoDeck and peers down, making Silky start and bolt into the farthest corner of the pen. Suit-man frowns. Well, this raptor doesn’t seem very zoo-tame to me. It’s terrified of everything.

What d’you expect? He’s never been in a place like this.

We’re paying extra for a raptor that isn’t going to cower away from people and make the visitors think we’re mistreating it. I’ve heard of you hunters’ tricks. If you’re trying to pass off some sub-standard creature on us, you won’t get paid at all.

Ned winces and holds up a hand. Now, Mr. Grundvick—

But I don’t care what Ned plans to say. Suit-man’s suspicion is just one slur too many. He’s gonna get punched if he keeps treating hunters like this—this guy could try even a hunter’s self-restraint. But there are better ways to make a point.

Not tame, huh? I take two steps to the edge of the obsoDeck.

Aw, heck, Joshua, don’t you—

I ignore Ned—and drop lightly down into the pen.

DARRYL

After knocking back my last swig of coffee, I slip on my denim jacket and pause on my way to the gun locker, checking my reflection in the hall mirror. Shoulder-length brown hair brushed—and loose, for once—face clean, blue eyes...glum. But this has happened, whether I like it or not, so I might as well make a good first impression.

Harry, get down here, we’re going to be late!

The volume of Dad’s latest bellow up the stairs shows that he means business. Well, I’m ready, at least.

I thought my younger brother had come around to the ‘might as well make a good impression’ viewpoint as well, but there’s still no noise from upstairs. The fact is, when your dad comes back from a routine weekend market and supply trip to the city and announces that he’s got honest-to-God married and that the woman—sorry, step-mom—will be coming to live with you, three weeks really isn’t enough time to deal with it.

Harry totally lost it. Screamed Lord knows what at Dad, then ran off to the nearest barn. I managed not to do any screaming, but I had to go up and shut myself in the farmhouse’s observation turret for almost an hour, and talk to myself a lot. You know: Dad’s been alone a long time, Darryl; if he’s fallen in love that’s wonderful, isn’t it, Darryl; you want your father to be happy, don’t you, Darryl?

He totally sprung it on us, though. I guess he was so scared Potential Step-Mom—sorry, Carol—would come to her senses and decide that no handsome, propertied man of her own age was worth going and living unSPARKed on some farm. Carol’s a city girl, all right.

When I finally managed to go back down and say something about being happy for Dad and try to show some interest in his new bride, he showed me a photo, and my heart didn’t lift. Just sank even further. Manicured Carol looked like she’d never got within a mile of the city fence in her life, let alone stepped outside it. A less likely farmer’s wife I had never seen.