Sara McRoberts: First Book Review

Yolen, Janel, and Mark Teague. How Do Dinosaurs Say   Good   Night? New York: The Blue Sky Press, 2000. Print.


This book is about the silly ways people think dinosaurs might get ready for bed.

This book did a great job of providing enlarged illustrations of dinosaurs so that the children reading this would constantly be engaged in the reading. The dinosaurs in this book towered over the people, creating a main focal point for the readers. Each page showed a new kind of dinosaur and somehow labeled its name somewhere on the page. This labeling made for a game of "I Spy" for the children reading. Dinosaur names were displayed in all sorts of fashions ranging from being engraved into head boards on beds, made of letter blocks, and on penant flags. Overall, this bok was one that draws in all kinds of readers throughout the whole read.

Blackstone, Stella, and Clare Beaton. I Dremat I Was a Dinosaur. Cambridge: Barefoot Books, 2005. Print.

I Dreamt I Was A Dinosaur is about a young boy who dreams of living in a time wear dinosaurs roam. Along the way he explores and meets all sorts of dinosarus and learns of their speacial characteristics.

This book introduces multiple kinds of dinosaurs and teaches of their special traits and characteristics. A teacher could form an activity for a classroom of students to show understanding of the book. Each student could pick their favorite dinosaur that was mentioned in the book and recreate them as that dinosaur. For example, if their dinosaur could fly, they could trace themselves, draw some dinosaur scale skin, and add of some wings. This activity would show their rememberance of the dinosaurs traits, along with some characteristics of the student themself.

Blackstone, Stella, and Clare Beaton. I Dremat I Was a Dinosaur. Cambridge: Barefoot Books, 2005. Print.

Edwina is a dinosaur who is just the friendliest dinosaur around town; she bakes cookies, plays with neighborhood kids, and helps people cross the street. However, a young boy named Reginald Von Hoobie-Doobie doen't believe in such dinosaurs. Yet with time and some good dinosaur listening ears, Reginald turns around in his thinking.

This book provides for a great moral. With Reginald constantly denying Edwina's existance was done in such a hurtful manner. He paraded around school with flyers, picket signs, and even brought in a band to let everyone know that Edwina was not real. These actions hurt Edwina's feelings. By reading this book to a class and asking them if what Reginald did was nice or not would make for a great way to engage the class in discussing what's hurtful and unkind to people. Such a discussion about the book could then lead into applying kindness into the classroom, the school, and to everyone. This lesson can assure students of how words and actions can hurt others feelings, so we need to be kind and respectful to those around us.

Mitton, Tony, and Guy Parker-Rees. Dinosaurumpus! New York: Orchard Books, 2002. Print.

This book was a fun picture book that tells o all the silly dances dinosaurs do when near the sludgy old swamp.

A great class activity for this book would be to get the students to jump around, shake some maraccas, and prance around the "swamp". This kind of actiivty would make for a great time fill right before resess. Such an activity would get them all bouncing and excited; perfect for sending them outside to run around and play. A teacher could create some type of swamp out of cinstruction paper and lay it on the ground. Each student could be a different dinosaur. One who bounces around  saying "EEEK", another who is shaking some maraccas, and others who just hop arund doing the dinosaurumpus. Having students do such would make for a great interactive class activity.

DiPucchio, Kelly, and Ponder Goembel. Dinosnores. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005. Print

Dinosnores is about all the bizzare noises and actions that dinosaurs make when they are fast asleep.

This book did an awesome job with its constant rhyming. Page after page was consecutive rhyming that would be rather enjoyable to children. The rhyming added humor to the noises that dinosaurs make when sleeping. The author definitelty kept children in mind when writing this book. They knew what would be funny and enthralling to the young ages. In addition to being a good read for the classroom, it would also make for a great read that parents could read when children are being tucked into bed.