Dinosaur Parade: A Picture Book

by Shari Halpern

Some dinosaurs are tall. Some dinosaurs are very small.
Some dinosaurs walk on two legs, others on four.
And some dinosaurs look sweet while others look scary. This colorful parade of dinosaurs is a visual feast for very young fans of prehistorical creatures. The simple text and bold illustrations are ideal for preschoolers who are fascinated with these magnificent animals.

Genres: Picture Books, Dinosaurs, Storytime, Animals, Childrens, Juvenile, Nonfiction

32 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2014

About the author

Sherri Halpern, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, illustrates children's books using collage and gouache. She enjoys spending time with her family and cats.

Reviews

[Dani ❤️ Perspective of a Writer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out more picture book reviews @ Perspective of a Writer...

Do you have a preschooler fascinated by dinosaurs and eager to learn all of their names? This colorful parade of dinosaurs provides the vehicle for them to learn it all!

My nephew is a mega-fan of dinosaurs!! He loves to draw them, read about them and talk about them. His favorite is by far "T-rex" or Tyrannosaurus as the book calls him. So it didn't surprise me that he chose the t-rex spread to drawn with the mama dinosaur on the other end! The words were simple but he was having a hard day today so it was actually perfect.

I actually would have preferred the pronunciation keys as part of the colorful pages as well as the little blurbs about each dinosaur so we could read them as we went through the books. I also wasn't a huge fan of the art style. It was perfect for my nephew to draw and feel super confident but if I was a parent I would get tired of this book fast. There was no message and actually the words borderline on being totally meaningless. It was all about learning the dinosaurs!!

BOTTOM LINE: Particularly for very young dinosaur lovers!

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You can find this review and many others on my book blog @ Perspective of a Writer. See my picture book reviews in a special feature called Boo's Picture Gallery...

[Cindy Mitchell *Kiss the Book* · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dinosaur Parade by Shari Halpern. BOARD BOOK. Christy Ottaviano Books (Henry Holt & Co.), 2018. $8.
9781250155245

BUYING ADVISORY: Pre-K - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

This is a colorful and fun board book about dinosaurs. A young boy creates a dinosaur parade with his toy dinosaurs, and in doing so introduces the reader to a whole variety of different dinosaurs.

Had I read and reviewed this book entirely on my own I'd have rated it optional. The rhyming cadence is poor and trying to read (in quasi-rhyme) while stopping every line to say the name of a dinosaur is really annoying. But since I read and reviewed this with my toddler--and she cannot get enough of this book!--I'd have to say the appeal is obviously there for the intended audience. I do like the color palate used, and its fun to have a board book with such a good connection to actual science. Its a bear to read out loud, but still a fun board book kids will love.

Reviewer: TC
https://kissthebookjr.blogspot.com/20...

[Abby Hargreaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

A picture book dealing primarily in rhymes, Dinosaur Parade shows one little boy playing with his dinosaurs and describing them all. The end pages provide a glossary of sorts, with a printed pattern of different dinosaurs and a brief description with each's name. A simple illustration style is cute and bold for holding attention and kids will love yet another opportunity to learn about their favor extinct animals.

[Holly · Rating 2 out of 5]

My toddler loves this book. I like that we can read the story or read the names of the dinosaurs or both. My toddler often asks me to draw the dinosaurs as well. The illustrations in the book are simple and cute and my son is learning dinosaur names.

but...whenever I read the story I get into a rhythm with the rhyming pattern and then inexplicably changes for the last couple of pages.

It's baffling. Why? How did this happen? Why start a rhyming pattern at all? I need answers, Shari!

[Ali Book&Seaglasshunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute for young children. Rhyming text about different types of dinosaurs (vaguely different short/tall, fly/swim, etc). It was a quick read with cute colorful illustrations perfect for the toddler-preschool age group. My kids are just a little older than that and still enjoyed it. I appreciated that the dinosaurs names with phonectic spelling were included on the endpapers, as well a fact about each one.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

While shelved as a picture book, this one almost works as a non-fiction piece. It's an easy read-aloud and a very basic introduction to dinosaurs. Since we're pretty far into out unit on dinosaurs, there wasn't anything new for us, and I do have to not that swimming and flying reptiles are not, by definition, dinosaurs, but it was still fun to read.

[Aolund · Rating 3 out of 5]

A brightly-colored, rhyming picture book showing a parade of different dinosaurs. A white child is shown playing with toy dinosaurs at the beginning and end of the picture book, but the meat of the book is made up of chunky, full-bleed illustrations of dinos in various environments. Simple and effective.

Themes: Dinosaurs
Age range: 1-5

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

I need to make sure I read books like
this with the audience intended. It was fine, but I think the experience definitely improves with an eager dinosaur-loving audience. The vivid colors and dinosaur names brought me back to my children's younger years when we watched A LOT of PBS kids dinosaur shows. I credit that show for being able to pronounce all the names of the animals in here.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really simple dinosaur book with decent illustrations of actual dinosaurs - fun with Stella right now (25 months) because she knows names for a number of different dinosaurs and this is great practice for that.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple enough for a 3-year-old to enjoy. Perfect for my little dinophile that likes learning ALL the names of the dinosaurs.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short and sweet. My littlest storytime kiddos just loved the pictures!

[Lillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute introduction to dinosaurs, but a bit advanced for me. I'll come back to this one later when I'm older.

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

My 2o-mo old loves dinosaurs, but could never get into this book.

[Villain E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exactly what it says in the title. Dinosaurs walking by. It rhymes, and then it doesn't.

[Arik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank goodness there is a pronunciation guide. Definitely a child pleaser, if your kid is mine.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple rhymes, colorful pictures, fun. This will be a hit at Dino storytime.

[Christine Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dinosaur Storytime

[Lauren Canaday Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good and simple. 😊

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

An educational look at the many different dinosaurs that roamed the earth before many became extinct.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute picture book; but be aware that not every creature listed is actually a dinosaur.

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this delightful dinosaur book, the title page shows a young boy carrying a box of toy dinosaurs. The following pages show him arranging the beasts into parade formation on his bedroom carpet. Rhyming text describes size, physical features (armor, bills), habitats (water, sky), diets (herbivores, carnivores) and locomotion of a variety of dinosaurs. The dinosaurs are labeled with their scientific names, but their renderings are anything but scientific. The large illustrated beasts are colorfully bold and cheery. Even the heavily-toothed dinos are hardly scary---just right for very young fans. The dinosaurs take over each spread and eclipse the brief bolded lines of text. The endpapers recreate the twenty-one featured dinosaurs in monochromatic shades along with a pronunciation guide and interesting fact about each one. The title is a must for the littlest dino-philes and would be a wonderful choice for reading aloud. It would be a worthwhile addition to any library dinosaur collection.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Young readers who also love dinosaurs will enjoy this easy-to-read title. Filled with gouache illustrations of various dinosaurs, the picture book shows a dinosaur parade organized by one fan of these prehistoric creatures. The book can also function as a concept book since the dinosaurs are sorted according to shapes, sizes, physical characteristics, diet, and movement, among others. The endpapers provide short facts about each dinosaur as well as a pronunciation key to their names. This one would make an excellent introduction to dinosaurs or cater to the fondness many children have for them.

The board book version of the book has high appeal for anyone who loves dinosaurs and has his/her own collection of the plastic models. Because the board book is easier to hold, it's a good choice for young readers.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Summary: A little boy describes his plastic dinosaurs using rhyming text that sorts the dinosaurs into groups. The end pages have pronunciation keys and a few sentences about each dinosaur. "They come in all sizes. They come in all shapes. Some have clubs. Others have plates." The
Publication: 2014
Library Use: Nice book for introducing sorting. The pictures are of the colorful plastic dinosaurs set in a realistic setting. The dinosaurs are purple with pink polka dots and red and purple. Not too realistic, but could be used to discuss fiction and nonfiction.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A boy and his cat carry a container full of plastic dinosaurs and invite the reader to come see the dinosaur parade that he has made. Bold bright dinosaurs parade through the pages of this book. Short sentences complement the text. "They come in all sizes. They come in all shapes. Some have clubs. Some have plates." Each dinosaur is labeled with its appropriate name and the end papers have bits of information about the dinosaurs. The colors are bold and beautiful and the drawings fit the pages well. A good title for an introduction to dinosaurs for a preschool or kindergarten aged child.

[Rosa Cline · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a simple visually nice storybook. The text is only three or four words per page. So a beginning reader would find this as a story they could grow their love for reading. Especially those that enjoy dinosaurs. Even if the text is 'simple' in smaller words above the illustrations of each dinosaur they did put what kind of dino it is. So an older adult could tell the child fact about that dino.

[Maggie KutsBorg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this at Toddler Time and it went well; I think it would have been better if it hadn't been in the shadow of the storytime juggernaut "Hi, Pizza Man!" which we read first. Oh well - this is a cute, toddler-friendly book about different kinds of dinosaurs. I would probably repeat it.

[Kristina]

Early literacy tips: book is great for reading the bigger "story" and also talking about names of dinosaurs, colors, shapes, etc. Also models how we can play with toys to enhance the story (take plastic dino toys and have a parade!)

[Halli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dinosaur Parade is similar to Byron Barton's Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, with bold, bright illustrations. The kids in my storytime enjoyed this one, but Barton's book was more well-received. I think it works well for storytime, and dinosaur-obsessed kids will definitely enjoy this book!

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little plain for my older story time kids (unless we name all of the pictured dinosaurs, I think), but the younger ones would probably enjoy. More a read-aloud for one-on-one reading than in the groups of 20-ish that I get at story time.

[Ampersand Inc. · Rating 3 out of 5]

From Judy:
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From Ali:
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From Saffron:
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