Title: How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?
Author: Jane Yolen
Illustrator: Mark Teague
Published: Blue Sky Press, 2003

I have three things to say about today’s selection:

1. I’m a huge Mark Teague fan. Along with the terrific How Do Dinosaurs…? series, he also illustrated the Poppleton books, which happen to be some of my favourites for early readers. (Just as a quick aside, the Poppleton books were written by Cynthia Rylant…but Mark Teague created the image of that portly pork chop and he’s just so lovely…for a pig).
2. I have read so many of the How Do Dinosaurs…? books and I still love them every time I read them to the kiddos.
3. I know this is an oldie (15 years old, people!) but it’s a goodie.

As mentioned above, we have read several of the How Do Dinosaurs…? books. This one in particular was in high rotation this year and last.

Why?

Because of the kindergarten plague. It basically started in October of 2016 and continued nearly unabated until this past June. Yes. It was that bad (worse, at times). And when your little one is fighting her fifteenth cold of the season, the only thing to do is read a story about some fussy little dinosaurs also trying to recover.

Stuff I love about this book:

1. It rhymes! I’m such a sucker for a well-written rhyming picture book. Jane Yolen does a fabulous job with all the dino books.
2. The pictures are brilliant. They’re so expressive and colourful and funny. The little dinosaurs at the beginning of the book are extremely accurate, in terms of behaving the way actual children behave when they’re sick.
3. The fact that each dino’s name is featured on its page. I’ve always loved me some ridiculously long, hard-to-pronounce names…and dinosaurs in general! Put them together and you’ve got a win-win.

The girls always enjoyed this one when they were sniffling and snorting and coughing. I enjoyed pointing out how well the dinosaur ended up taking his medicine and how good he was at the doctor’s office.

Hint, hint.

I am half looking forward to school starting in a couple of weeks (Vivi is heading into grade ONE! Lily still has another year at home with me…something she reminds me of on a near-daily basis).

The other not-looking-forward-to-it half is dreading the return of the plague. Seasoned parents tell me that it gets a little better year after year.

One can only hope. I’ll be keeping this book handy, just in case.

Mama’s review: A
Vivi’s review: A
Lily’s review: “Those poor dinosaurs were so sick!”