Today is World Book Day! Today and this week, children all over the UK and Ireland will be finding a love of books. What better time to share our recommendations for fun dinosaur books to read aloud to your dinosaur fan? These dinosaur picture books will have you and your little dinosaur fan laughing and giggling (and dancing!) through every page.
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Why should you read aloud to your dinosaur fan?
Reading aloud to your little dinosaur fan builds foundational skills that they will need throughout their life. For that reason, it is one of the most important things that a parent or teacher can do with children.
There are at least five main benefits of reading aloud:
- Sharpened focus: it is easier to ignore distractions when reading aloud.
- Introduces vocabulary: Reading aloud confronts children with words, rhymes, and patterns of speech.
- Increased comprehension: Until about the age of 12, children understand up to two comprehension levels higher when someone reads to them aloud than they do when they are reading for themselves.
- Strengthened listening skills: Reading aloud improves listening skills, awareness and attention.
- Intrigued young minds: Reading aloud allows you to add emotion and tone and fun character voices to the text to keep children intrigued.
Moreover, reading aloud held children recognise what a pleasure reading can be. When this is coupled with one of their favourite things – dinosaurs – the pleasure could be doubled!
And these fun dinosaur books are perfect to read aloud to your little dinosaur fan.
Fun dinosaur books to read aloud
How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?
The way the dinosaurs in this book get up to typical bedtime antics is just sweet. You’re sure to recognise your little dinosaur fan in at least one of them. The pictures in How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? are beautiful and the rhymes are fun to read aloud.
You may remember from our list of dinosaur books for the festive season that this is just one of a series. They are all gorgeous, but How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? is our favourite.
Tiny T. Rex and the Impossible Hug
We’ve all seen the memes about Tyrannosaurs trying to clap their hands with their short arms. Imagine how difficult it is for a T-Rex to hug someone when they really need it…
Tiny T. Rex and the Impossible Hug is a gorgeous story about compassion and the refusal to let physical limitations stop you from hurting a friend.
Have You Seen My Dinosaur?
Have You Seen My Dinosaur? is written in the style of Dr Seuss, so the rhymes are great to read aloud. The pictures also help guide the reader, helping them to understand some of the perhaps unfamiliar words in what is being read. It’s a great book to read aloud to little dinosaur fans who are early readers.
Dinosaurs Before Dark
Some of you might be familiar with the hugely popular Magic Tree House series. The first in the series, Dinosaurs Before Dark, is a wonderful start to the series, not just for dinosaur fans.
The book is too difficult for younger readers to read themselves, but it is definitely one of those fun dinosaur books to read aloud. Lovely descriptions and cliff-hangers that will leave your child in suspense add to the charm.
The Girl’s Guide to Dinosaurs
This is currently one of our Little Dinosaur Aficionado’s favourite books. The Girl’s Guide to Dinosaurs is an A to Z of dinosaurs. Each letter presents a dinosaur, gives a fact about that dinosaur and then imagines why that fact might make the dinosaur a fun friend.
The pictures are lovely and there is just the right amount of information for each dinosaur.
Our LDA loves going through the book and deciding which dinosaur would make the best friend. At the moment, her favourites are the Velociraptor, who likes painting her claws with nail polish, and the Elasmosaurus, who swims with mermaids.
Dinosaur Rap
Come on everybody, shake a claw,
John foster
Let me hear you holler, let me hear your roar!
This is definitely one of the fun dinosaur books to read aloud. As the title suggests, Dinosaur Rap is primarily “a rhythmic romp through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous”, and even comes with a CD.
Brontorina
We were reading Brontorina just last night!
Brontorina wants to be a ballerina. However, her size and lack of suitable ballet shoes make this difficult. Fortunately, she finds an ally in Miss Lucille, the ballet teacher. This lovely story proves that no problem is too big when you have heart and imagination.
You’ll be lucky if your little dinosaur fan is not trying to jeté or relevé like Brontorina.
Tip: This is a great book if you are looking for a costume for World Book Day. Just take a dinosaur costume and add ballet slippers.
Dinosaur Dump
You are unlikely to be familiar with Dinosaur Dump or the fart monster books unless you are from Australia.
Everyone knows that the dinosaurs are extinct, but the real reason might be more disgusting than you think… I’ve never read so many different words and phrases for going to the toilet, but you know that is why your little dinosaur fan will love it.
There’s a Dinosaur in my Bathtub
There’s a Dinosaur in my Bathtub is one of our favourite books at the moment.
Amelia introduces us to Pierre, a French dinosaur with a moustache who loves cheese and hides in Amelia’s bathroom. The gorgeous images and brilliantly different story mean it is definitely one of the fun dinosaur books you will want to read aloud to your little dinosaur fan. Plus, it’s a great chance to practice a bad French accent!
Dinosaurs in the Supermarket
As we explained, this was one of those books that we bought during a visit to the Natural History Museum in London.
What a mess! The dinosaurs are wreaking havoc in the supermarket and no one else seems to see them. A fun rhyme about a boy whose trip to the supermarket is far from boring.
We love this one so much we got Dinosaurs Go Christmas Shopping for Christmas and I have added Dinosaur in My School to the list of books and gifts our LDA will receive in her Schultüte when she starts school.
What is a Schultüte?
A Schultüte, or school cone, is what children in Germany traditionally receive on their first day of school. This large cone (normally made of cardboard and paper) is decorated and filled with toys, chocolate, candies, school supplies and other special treats. It is given to children to make their first day of school a little sweeter.
Closer to the time, we intend to share instructions for how to make your own – dinosaur-themed, of course!
Dinosaur Dance
Dance along with the dinosaurs in this simple but fun book that’s great for dinosaur fans who are just learning to read. Dinosaur Dance will have you tapping your feet along too as you read.
Dinosaurier in Omas Garten
The Dinosaurier in Omas Garten (Dinosaurs in Grandma’s Garden) and the follow-up Dinosaurier I’m Freibad (Dinosaurs in the Local Swimming Pool) are absolutely gorgeous. Unfortunately, they are only available in German at the moment, but I seriously thought about offering to translate them into English so that more dinosaur fans could enjoy them.
Leon and Sophie are so happy to be staying with the rather eccentric grandmother for the summer holidays. That was even before they discovered that Oma has dinosaurs living in her garden – all house trained and tame of course!
The dinosaurs are so much fun, sliding down Brontosaurus necks and playing jump rope where the skipping ropes are dinosaur tails. As fun as it is, their size causes problems, too. So Leon and Sophie develop a plan…
Other fun dinosaurs books to read aloud (that we don’t own… yet)
Yes, we do own quite a few dinosaur books – and this list does not include all of the fiction books nor any of the non-fiction books.
Here are some more fun dinosaur books that we can’t wait to read aloud to our little dinosaur aficionado.
- The Girl and the Dinosaur: Our LDA has a wonderful imagination, and any book that promotes that is good in my view. The pictures are gorgeous, too.
- The Dinosaur Tree: This book is new and we haven’t managed to get our hands on a copy yet. It is about an unlikely friendship between a dinosaur and a butterfly.
- Am I Yours?: When an egg is blown out of its nest a group of dinosaurs help the egg find out what type of dinosaur it is and return it to its parents.
- Edwina: I love Mo Willems and am surprised that I hadn’t heard about this one before. If anyone has it, please let us know!
- The Girl Who Really Really Really Loves Dinosaurs: This one will be one of the next dinosaur books we get. Lara loves dinosaurs and wants one of her own, until a trip to the museum.
- If I had a Pet Dinosaur: The bright colours in this book might make it a fun dinosaur book to read aloud to younger children, too. And who doesn’t want a dinosaur as a pet?
- Tea Rex: We nearly purchased this one for our LDA for Christmas until we realised we had too many on the list. What happens when the manners of your afternoon tea guest are more cretaceous than gracious…
Fun dinosaur books to read aloud
Are you looking for some fun dinosaur books to read aloud to your little dino lover? Look no further! These dinosaur picture books will have you and your little dinosaur fan laughing and giggling (and dancing!) through every page.
Which of these dinosaur books do you already own? Which ones are now on your list? What should we add to our list?
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