Book Review: My Visit to the Dinosaurs by Aliki

My Visit to the Dinosaurs by Aliki

3:  I loved to see the KING of the dinosaurs.  I like the T-Rex. 

5:  My favorite part is when I saw the T-Rex.   I’ve seen bones stuck together with wire like the ones in the book.

M:  This book is a little bit old fashioned and I imagine a tad out of date of the current research on dinosaurs.  I’m no expert on dinosaurs, however, so I’m not sure how exact and up-to-date or not the information is.  Overall it seemed mostly accurate according to my knowledge.   The illustrations are pleasant, in any case, and the child’s reaction natural to a new museum experience.  At first curious but a little wary, at the end confident.  The book begins and ends in a dinosaur museum with dinosaur skeletons exhibited, but each dinosaur is highlighted with an illustration as the artist imagines the dinosaur would have looked in life.

Probably enjoyed most by children 4 and up

An additional dinosaur (though not museum-related, per se) book we’ve found and loved is I Am a Tyrannosaurus by Anna Grossnickle Hines.  We first found this book a year or so ago in the methodical way I find most of my books at the library: I follow my toddler around and pick up the books they toss off the shelf and onto the floor.  I Am a Tyrannosaurus shows a child pretending to be various dinosaurs and the illustrations are charming (I’m a sucker for kids in rain boots ala Christopher Robin).  It’s easy to mimic the actions and sounds to pretend to be the dinosaur as well.

Enjoyed by children 18 months and up