Things You Never Knew About Dinosaurs by Giles Paley-Phillips and Liz Pichon

Things You Never Knew About Dinosaurs by Giles Paley-Phillips and Liz Pichon
Buy Things You Never Knew About Dinosaurs by Giles Paley-Phillips and Liz Pichon at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Emerging Readers
Reviewer: Zoe Page
Summary: As the title says, there's more to dinos than meets the eye. Fun and a little bit different.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 24	Date: August 2013
Publisher: Meadowside
ISBN: 978-1472319845
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The idea of a dinosaur on a trampoline or playing football is just plain silly. After all, everyone knows dinosaurs died out yonks ago…didn’t they?

Nope.

No, they did not.

Dinosaurs are still around today. They live among us, and do the things we do. And if you’ve never seen one, you’ve clearly not been looking hard enough, and it’s just as well this book has been written to fill you in.

Kids love silly things, and there’s nothing sillier than a person or animal or creature doing something atypical for them. Like a bear going to school (see Boris Gets Spots by Carrie Weston and Tim Warnes ) or a keeping a dragon as in George's Dragon Goes to School by Claire Freedman and Russell Julian. So no child in their right mind is going to see a picture of a dinosaur with crossed legs, hopping around needing a wee, and not laugh. Or struggling to do their sums. Or walking the red carpet in Hollywood.

Told in verse, this book has a definite rhythm to it which makes it lovely to read aloud. It’s quite punchy rather than lilting, and a little bit feisty. The dinosaurs are more modern than the ones you might have seen in other books. These ones wear sunglasses, bandanas, kilts. Sometimes roller skates. They probably wouldn’t like me saying so, but they are quite cute dinosaurs. The sort you’d want to hang out and play with rather than run screaming from. Which is why the final page comes as such a shock at first, though a shock that quickly dissolves into fits of laughter.

I really enjoyed this book. It was a bit different, with an almost non-fiction feel to it, and it made me giggle. I think it will be a hit.

Thanks go to the publishers for sending us this to review.

The Fearsome Beastie is the author's earlier, award-winning work. Check it out!

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You can read more book reviews or buy Things You Never Knew About Dinosaurs by Giles Paley-Phillips and Liz Pichon at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.

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