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Dinosaurs

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Great Fiction & Nonfiction Books

Age Level: 3-6 years old

Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures With the Family Lazardo

By: William Joyce | Illustrated by: William Joyce

Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader

While on a family excursion to Africa, the Lazardos find a dinosaur and bring him home to their small town. Dinosaur Bob becomes part of their family and the town’s best baseball player.

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Dinosaur Train

By: John Steven Gurney

Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader

Does Jesse travel back in time or is an imaginative jaunt when he boards a train with a Tyrannosaurus engineer? No matter; train and dino-obsessed Jesse's imaginative journey is sure to delight.

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Dinosaur!

By: Peter Sis

Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Pre-Reader

When a boy's toy dinosaurs come to life, a whole new world is created in his bathtub. No words are needed as the adventure grows and then recedes when his mother brings him back to the real world. Black lines on crisp white pages effectively convey the child's fantasy and his reality. Dinosaur names appear on the endpaper to the book.

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Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs

By: Byron Barton | Illustrated by: Byron Barton

Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader

A long time ago there were dinosaurs. Big dinosaurs and small dinosaurs. Dinosaurs with horns on their heads or spikes down their backs. Dinosaurs with long, long necks and long, long tails. Imaginatively and with a masterful use of color, shape, and composition, the author/illustrator brings to life a unique and endearing vision of what the world may have looked like once upon a time. [Amazon review]

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Edwina, the Dinosaur Who Didn’t Know She Was Extinct

By: Mo Willems | Illustrated by: Mo Willems

Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader

Everyone in town knows Edwina. She is the dinosaur who plays with the kids. She is the dinosaur who helps little old ladies cross the street. And best of all, she bakes yummy chocolate-chip cookies. Everyone loves Edwina except for Reginald Von Hoobie-Doobie. Reginald knows dinosaurs are extinct and is ready to prove it. But will anyone listen? And if they do, what will happen to Edwina? [Amazon review]

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How Big Were the Dinosaurs?

By: Bernard Most

Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader

Dinosaurs are endlessly fascinating. Perhaps because it is hard to imagine giant lizards roaming the earth. In simple illustrations and straightforward text, the size of dinosaurs is related to more familiar things, so that children can picture this prehistoric time. Before embarking on a museum field trip, start kids thinking about how big dinosaurs were!

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Stomp, Dinosaur, Stomp!

By: Margaret Mayo | Illustrated by: Alex Ayliffe

Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader

Meet massive, wrinkly, stiff-tailed, feathered and more dinosaurs as they stomp, guard, and gulp through this colorful pages of this rhythmic, attractive book. Pronunciation help for dinosaur names is provided on the end pages.

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Time Train

By: Paul Fleischman | Illustrated by: Claire Ewart

Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader

Join Miss Pym's students as they take a memorable train trip across the U.S. to a time and place where dinosaurs roamed. Humor and adventure combine as Miss Pym is horrified but her students delight in getting to know the huge creatures firsthand.

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When Dinosaurs Came with Everything

By: Elise Broach | Illustrated by: David Small

Age Level: 3-6 years old | Reading Level: Beginning Reader

In a playful take on the stickers and lollipops that bored kids sweep up at businesses as parents do errands, the author imagines what would happen if a dinosaur were the giveaway of the day. A boy's increasing delight at the freebies he collects from the bakery, the doctor, and barber contrast with his mother's increasing panic and dismay as the lumbering beasts start to accumulate. When they acquire the fourth behemoth, Mom decides that the errands are done and whisks everyone home. Once there, she finds some unique ways to put the stegosaurus, triceratops, hadrosaur, and pterosaur to good use doing household chores. [School Library Journal review]

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