Can children, and in particular, boys, ever read too many dinosaur books? Certainly not. Dinosaurs are forever fascinating in both fiction and nonfiction. They may be monstrous and terrifying, but conveniently, because they're extinct, we don't need to worry about them showing up in the back yard or under the bed.
 
Over the past decade, author Jane Yolen and illustrator Mark Teague have been stoking dinosaur frenzy with a nifty set of rhyming stories, featuring obstreperous and gargantuan dinosaur children and their baffled, bedeviled, and forbearing humans parents. First on the scene was How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night where ten different dinosaurs and their weary dads and moms negotiated the landmine of bedtime. Since then, there have been many more, some in oversized hardcover, and others in chunky and indestructible board books, just right for little hands.

"What if a dinosaur / catches the flu?
Does he whimper and whine between each atchoo?
Does he drop / dirty tissues all over the floor?
Does he fling all his medicine / out of the door?"

Jaunty, oversized paintings and a sprightly rhyming series of questions showcase ten sniffly, under the weather, cranky dinosaurs. With their concerned parents, they visit the doctor and follow sensible remedies at home to shake off the aches and sneezes-including pills, juice, and lots of rest. At the end, after one Mama and Papa tiptoe out the door, we bid the many-horned teddy-clutching styrachosaurus, "Get well. Get well, little dinosaur."

There's a satisfying juxtaposition of real dinosaurs (identified by name in each illustration and on the composite endpaper pictures), and their human child-like behavior. Children love looking for and matching up each dinosaur and trying to pronounce each one's mouthful of a moniker, ranging from the well-known velociraptor and brachiosaurus to the tongue-twisting tuojiangosaurus and euoplocephalus.

Make giant Get Well cards to your favorite under-the-weather dinos or have your young artists draw themselves as dinosaur characters. With children ages three and up, follow up your reading with a simple nonfiction dinosaur book featuring all types of Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous creatures, such as Dinosaurs by Gail Gibbons. If you do a Google search for each of the dinosaurs named, you'll easily pull up dramatic and impressive drawings and fossils that will make your dinosaur-loving kids say "aahh."


THEMES: BEHAVIOR. COLD (DISEASE). DINOSAURS. DOCTORS. FATHERS. HUMOROUS FICTION. INFLUENZA. MOTHERS. SICK. STORIES IN RHYME.