A Wish-For Dinosaur

Magic Castle Readers

by Jane Belk Moncure, Vera Kennedy Gohman

Darrin's wish comes true when he receives a pet dinosaur for a day

Genres: Childrens, Dinosaurs, Picture Books, Fiction

29 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Jane Belk Moncure (born December 1926) is an American author of early childhood non-fiction, fiction and poetry. She has also written under the names Bruce Wannamaker and Jennie Davis.

Moncure has lived in Virginia and North Carolina. She worked in early childhood education for thirty-five years. She lives in Elon College, North Carolina.

Moncure is a creative and prolific author: there are millions of her books in circulation, and they are widely distributed in schools and libraries. Distribution has been primarily through The ChildsWorld, ChildrensPress and Scholastic. Her creations and works include My First Steps to Reading, My First Steps to Math, My First Steps to Science, Word Bird, The Soundbox Books, and The Magic Castle Series. Her works have been translated into British English, Spanish, French, Chinese, and Malay. Belk Library, Elon University holds a collection of all published books by Moncure.

Jane Belk Moncure is a recipient of the C.S. Lewis Award and over the past 20 years, her works were recognized by numerous Awards. Most recently, in 2008, Jane received the Scholastic Teacher's Choice Award for her outstanding contribution to the My First Steps to Learning Program. --from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Eva-Marie Nevarez]

We read this, for the first time, last night at bedtime. I was expecting a little more in terms of the writing although I had no reason to have any expectations at all.
It did open up for discussion why some pets (example: dinaosaurs - my daughters favorite thing in the world) wouldn't make good pets. We were able to move that into others areas also.
I'd say this is more for a younger toddler but Julia is almost 5 and she still liked it.
** I forgot to mention the "opener" - a review below reminded me. I thought it was pretty cool honestly. It's basically calling books "Word Windows" and Julia has taken to calling them that also. I like it. :)

[Christine Grant]

Wishing Story Time. Dinosaur grants wishes.

[Holly Lilly]

Why are books called word windows and not books?

[Scarlett Freeman-Roy]

My 4 yr old loved the part when the dinosaur made all the messes.

[Kathleen Ruff]

"A Wish for Dinosaur" was a cute book. I would recommend this book to be one that is for casual read by the students. The words are not large and the kids will love it considering it has to deal with a dinosaur in the funiest of places for a child.

[Jessica]

If you enjoy this style of children's books, these are great books for you collection. I was distracted by the opening--which leads to te story. The story itself is not bad.

[Theresa]

A wish for dinosaur is a great early primer to help establish reading proficiency

[Shannon Rickert]

This series of books are great. they are very good for begginer readers and the also have great lessons in them.

[Jenn]

3.5 A little cheesy (yes, I know it's a children's book, but some of them simply captivate me and this one was just alright).

[Kymberly]

Silly book for early readers.