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Summary: Dinosaur Roar
Review: What a wonderful "party" before bed. Although it certainly doesn't calm my children before bed, at least it makes the process more fun. We read it every single night and act out every single page (stomp our feet, hug and kiss... my daughter instructs me to cover my ears so that her ROAR won't hurt my ears). The illustrations are beautiful, colorful and funny. Tiny frustrated (and helpless) parents trying to cajole their giant dinosaurs into bed- tell me your kids don't seem especially large and ferocious at bed time. At the picture of Papa shrugging helplessly towards Mama, my daughter and son both say, "Mama, I don't know how to fix that dinosaur for bed!" Best of all, even if bed time is still a struggle, we can all have a good laugh. So snuggle up with your dinosaurs and get ready for wonderful giggles.
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Summary: Outstanding bedtime tale
Review: How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? entertains while also teaching good bedtime behavior. Combine children's fascination with dinosaurs and Mark Teague's irresisible, humorous illustrations and you have a sure hit with both child and parent. The text is rhyming and fun to read aloud. The question is asked repeatedly, "do dinosaurs do this (bad behavior)" and then the answer is in the last few pages, "no, they don't do this (bad behavior), they do this (good behavior)." The illustrations serve to emphasize the behaviors partly due to the huge size of the dinosaurs. Each picture contains the name of the dinosaur also. Along with a variety of dinosaurs, this book also features a variety of moms and dads which helps to give it a multicultural flavor. For those children who enjoy the book for its dinosaur content, I also highly recommend "Ten Little Dinosaurs" by Pattie Schnetzler and "Sammy and the Dinosaurs" by Ian Whybrow.
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Summary: Dinosaurs act up at bedtime too!
Review: This imaginative book features a large cast of "real" dinosaurs acting as naughty as real kids do when it's bedtime. I loved the pictures of exasperated parents as a huge brontosaurus throws covers on the floor or a tyrannasaurus rex runs around the room. My second grade niece, a good reader, handles the text with ease but isn't too old to be tickled by the concept. Younger siblings like this one too. Inside the front cover is a chart with small drawings of the characters and their scientific names--an educational bonus!
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Summary: Very cute
Review: This is an adorable book. Children love the rhyming prose. I read this book to my students today and they were thoroughly engrossed. Mark Teague has done another great job illustrating a book. I have left the book out for the kids to revisit it; they can go back to each illustration to try to find the name of the illustrated dinosaur somewhere in the room. You'll love this book , too.
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Summary: Undeniably cute
Review: This is really a cute book. The illustrations are warm and friendly. I like how subtly the names of the dinosaurs appear ... sometimes spelled out with blocks or on a bedstead. (Thank goodness they're identified otherwise I wouldn't know them all.) The only reason I didn't give it a 5 is that the story was a little weak and it's a little pricey although for the size and illustrations it is justified.
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Summary: How do you think?
Review: I'm always pleased when an author and an illustrator of equal talents are placed together by a clever editor so as to produce a wonderful piece of picture book art. Jane Yolen is the author of, honest to goodness, more than two hundred books for both children and adults. Just pause a while and marvel at her consistency, if you will. Mark Teague may not have that many works under his belt, but what he lacks in proliferation he makes up for in downright fabulous illustrating. If you've read his charming "Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters From Obedience School" then you are aware of how amazingly adept this man is. Taking those monstrous creatures co-opted by children as their favorite animals, Yolen and Teague have created a book that proves what we've suspected all along. Your children are merely little dinosaurs in disguise. The premise of this book is simple. Sleepy dinosaurs do NOT want to go to bed at night. The book ponders just how exactly these dinos do say their goodnights to their parents. The parents in this book, by the way, are always human while their dinosaur offspring fill their bedrooms from ceiling to floor. So how do dinosaurs say good night? Well, they can insist on reading one more book. They can fall onto their beds in tears. They can slam their tails about and pout too. But no, my friends. In the end, dinosaurs do none of these things. Instead, they give their parents a big kiss and a hug, tuck their tales into their beds, and say good night. Just like a good little dinosaur should. The hope after reading this tale is that kids will understand that all the naughty behavior exhibited by the dinosaurs in the early parts of the book will be negated by the good behavior exhibited at the end. How well this works, I do not know. One thing is for certain, however. Mark Teague is a genius. Oh, I'm sure Jane Yolen put a lot of work into this puppy as well. Yes yes. But Mark Teague... now there's a man who knows how children react at nighttime. These pictures are just a scream. Each father or mother than enters the dinosaur's room is usually accompanied by some cowering pet, either a dog or a cat. The dinosaur's rooms are outfitted as a child's would be too. Teague has helpfully included each animal's name (from the roaring Triceratops to the piggy back begging Ankylosaurus) somewhere in the picture too. I was also well pleased with the parents in this book. A good multi-racial cast, they don't give an inch to these plying crying dinos. And you haven't lived until you've seen a Tyranosaurus Rex kissing his Donna Reed look-alike mother. More recently popular dinosaurs, like the Velociraptor, do not appear in this tale. Probably a good idea in retrospect. All in all, this is one of the most successful new bedtime books to come around the pike. For those kids bored to tears by the far calmer "Goodnight Moon", this will be just the exciting bedtime tale to get them tucked away for the night. A fabulous creation that fully lives up to its popularity.
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Summary: You think it is difficult to put kids to bed? Try a dinosaur
Review: I noticed that there are editions of "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?" in Spanish and French, which is not surprising because the art of Mark Teague certainly translates into any language. Author Jane Yolen poses the questions regarding what happens when Papa or Mama comes to turn off the lights and send their dinosaurs to bed, and Teague comes up with the utterly charming images that will delight readers of any age. Part of the fun is that Papa and Mama are regular human beings, so when Papa shows up and points to his watch to a Tyrannosaurus Rex that takes up an entire page as a way of suggesting it is time to put away his toy train and go to bed, you just have to smile (note the family dog is about the size of one of the T Rex's toes). From the Stegosaurus that slams his tail and pouts to the Ankylosaurus that demands a piggyback ride, each of these two-page spreads will make parents happy that they just have regular human kids and not dinosaurs. For children the fun will be in answering the question of the title and discovering that dinosaurs and little kids have a lot in common when it comes to resisting being put into bed. There is a slight risk that your kids might find a new way of prolonging the inevitable and find themselves imitation the Corythosaurus and falling on top of their covers and crying or stomping their feet on the floor and shouting they want to have another book read to them. But then "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?" really covers all of the basic delaying tactics of children. Besides, it is clearly indicated that these tactics are a bit silly, even if you are a sulking Allosaurus or roaring Triceratops. All of the illustrations in this book are a joy, including those inside the front cover where Teague shows all of these dinosaurs sitting atop their beds doing things like blowing bubbles or quietly reading a good book (okay, the Ankylosaurus is jumping on the bed, but clearly he is the high energy one of the group). "How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?" is the first in a series of similar collaborations between Yolen and Teague that includes "How Do Dinosaurs Count to Ten?" "How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?" and "How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Room?" That last one is definitely the one I want to check out next, because I shudder to think what Yolen and Teague will come up for in those situations. You think getting a Dinosaur to say goodnight is difficult? That is nothing compared to getting them to clean their rooms.
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Summary: A Neat Book
Review: I recently purchased this book for my 2-year old son and he instantly fell in love with it. The book features a series of large and colorful illustrations of dinosaurs [what little boy wouldn't like this?] with the theme of "mommy and daddy trying to get them to go to bed". The names of the dinosaurs are cleverly placed in the illustrations which gives the book some educational value. RECOMMENDED
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Summary: Wonderful Stuffie, Even More Delighful Book
Review: For those of us who have ever wondered how do dinosaurs say good-night, Jane Yolen and Mark Teague have provided what should remain the definitive answer. This book is a delight with its large, colourful drawings and its bouncy rhythm. The added joy of the plush toy dinosaur with its little teddy bear and its blanket knocks this book over the top. The larger size stuffie is the better choice over its smaller version but either will continue the book's pleasure. Another little jewel of this picture book are the images on the front and back covers of a variety of dinosaurs with their actual names. This book is a keeper.
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Summary: Get the DVD
Review: I do not own this book. My husband purchased a compilation of animated stories on a DVD entitled Goodnight Gorilla. This story was the second one on the DVD. IT IS FANTASTIC!!!! I'm not sure what the book shows but the DVD shows children turning into dinosaurs as their parents try to put them to sleep. As good if not better is the The musical score accompanying the story. It is INCREDIBLE! My son LOVES it.
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