A Book A Week

Lest you think I forgot, here is my pick for the week. Although, actually it's an entire series of books that I absolutely love (my kids do too!). We call them the dinosaur books. The authors are Jane Yolen and Mark Teague and there are many titles to choose from, even board books--yay! One of my favorites is the one pictured.

Why do I love them, well where to start? The dinosaurs are drawn life-sized as compared to their human parents. That's right, they have human parents--that's enough to read it right there wouldn't you agree?! :) And the illustrations are pretty sweet (with the actual name of the dinosaur hidden in the picture, so you can tell your kids when they ask).

I love how the books are set up: How does a dinosaur go to bed, the doctor, play with his friends. . . does he pout, scream, etc. The authors focus and mention nearly all of the negative bedtime, doctor, etc. issues your child may have and then the beauty of it, half way through each book says, "NOOO a dinosaur doesn't." And then the focus switches to the positive, the dinosaurs obey the first time, do their chores without complaint, say please and thank you, and make good choices. I cannot tell you how much I love this! In fact, I reference these books quite often when I can sense a battle of wills is in the offing . . . "Is that what a little dinosaur would do?", I'll ask, "Let's go find the book and remember what he does."

Anyway, find these books. Read them to your little dinosaurs. You won't be disappointed.

Ages 1 and up to ?? (Princess #2 who is 8 will still listen to them and Princess #1, who is 10, thinks they are fun to read to her sibs.) The Prince and Princess #3 love them {over and over and over again please}!!