What do you think?
A First Book of Dinosaurs
Smile and stomp along with this celebration of all things DINOSAUR, with exuberant poems by a National Poetry Day ambassador and joyful artwork.
Welcome to a world where it’s eat or be eaten – depending on how ferocious you are. From T-Rex to Triceratops, Stegosaurus to Velociraptor, meet the most awe-inspiring creatures ever to walk the Earth!
Author Simon Mole turns fascinating facts into over 30 poems and fragments, full of humour and heart; Matt Hunt’s magnificent illustrations bring these prehistoric beasts thundering off the page.
Here are the dinosaurs in all their larger-than-life glory – and here is a book that children will want to read over and over again.
Welcome to a world where it’s eat or be eaten – depending on how ferocious you are. From T-Rex to Triceratops, Stegosaurus to Velociraptor, meet the most awe-inspiring creatures ever to walk the Earth!
Author Simon Mole turns fascinating facts into over 30 poems and fragments, full of humour and heart; Matt Hunt’s magnificent illustrations bring these prehistoric beasts thundering off the page.
Here are the dinosaurs in all their larger-than-life glory – and here is a book that children will want to read over and over again.
80 pages, Hardcover
Published September 7, 2023
About the author
Simon Mole
6 books2 followersSimon Mole is an acclaimed children’s poet (and sleep deprived dad) who has shared stages with Michael Rosen, Kae Tempest and John Hegley. His first picture book Kites was published in 2019, followed by I Love My Bike in 2021, and I Love My Cat in 2022.
Simon is a National Poetry Day Ambassador, with over ten years’ experience using rap and poetry in community and education settings, including projects with Great Ormond Street Hospital and Arsenal Football Club.
Simon is a National Poetry Day Ambassador, with over ten years’ experience using rap and poetry in community and education settings, including projects with Great Ormond Street Hospital and Arsenal Football Club.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 3, 2026
Wat een heerlijk stoer en tof dinoboek waar ik vol van heb genoten! De tekst vond ik leuk al rijmde het soms wel en soms niet en ik had liever gezien dat het altijd rijmde of niet. Mijn favoriet was zeker de illustraties die vond ik echt zo tof gedaan.
Al mis ik natuurlijk wel de oudere dino's zoals ik ze kende van mijn jeugd voordat al dat kippengedoe/verengedoe kwam.
Al mis ik natuurlijk wel de oudere dino's zoals ik ze kende van mijn jeugd voordat al dat kippengedoe/verengedoe kwam.
March 22, 2024
Nederlandse vertaling gelezen: Welkom in de wereld van de dinosauriërs. Boek met prachtige plaatjes. Bij elke dino in het boek staat de fonetische naam en allemaal leuke (echte) feitjes. Mooi, leerzaam en ook nog op rijm!
September 24, 2023
If we're being completely honest, whilst there may be more than one way to skin a dinosaur, I'm not sure there are that many unique ways to create a First Book of them. This has been done before. Has it been done better? Yeah, probably. Does it matter? I guess it depends if you like this one more.
There isn't anything particularly stand out about this collection of dinosaurs, any more than any of its predecessors, but I happen to like this one a little more - the size of the book is generous, the illustrations are huge and the narrative isn't too info-dumpy, so this one works for me.
If I could improve upon it, I'd choose glossy pictures rather than matt drawings. But you can't win them all.
ARC provided from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
There isn't anything particularly stand out about this collection of dinosaurs, any more than any of its predecessors, but I happen to like this one a little more - the size of the book is generous, the illustrations are huge and the narrative isn't too info-dumpy, so this one works for me.
If I could improve upon it, I'd choose glossy pictures rather than matt drawings. But you can't win them all.
ARC provided from the publishers in exchange for an honest review.
October 4, 2023
Richie’s Picks: STOMP AND CHOMP: MY FIRST BOOK OF DINOSAURS by Simon Mole and Matt Hunt, ill,, Candlewick, October 2023, 80p., ISBN: 978-1-5362-324-3
“You know tyrannosaurus rex was destroyed before
By a furry little ball that crawled along
The primeval jungle floor
He stole the eggs of the dinosaur
Close your eyes & create the sound
Open your hands & rebuild the ground
We are egg snatchers! (egg snatchers!)”
– Paul Kantner (1970)
“Natural history artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins unveiled his dinosaur sculptures in 1854. These were the world’s first full-scale reconstructions of dinosaurs and represent the first three species discovered. Dinosaurs were still a relatively new discovery in the mid-1800s.”
– from the (British) Natural History Museum website
“PARASAUROLOPHUS ECHOES
(PAIR-uh-saw-RAWL-uh-fus)
When a Parasaurolophus blows air
through the tubes and passageways in its crest,
when its breath whooshes up the little tunnels inside,
it lets out a long…low…bellowing…cry,
Scientifically shown to be a similar sound
to a cow playing a trumpet in a cave,
Or a goose troupe tooting kazoos.
Or one very grizzly goat
with a didgeridoo.
And, OK, that got a little silly, but
imagine hundreds and hundreds in a herd:
each calling to another, back and forth.
A constant chorus. Deep. Majestic.
Echoing for miles and miles,
Echoing through the forest.
Echoing up past the treetops
and out into the sky.”
Since the days of Waterhouse Hawkins, little kids (and not-so-little kids) have been transfixed by the enormity and exoticness of dinosaurs. During the 1961-62 school year, this old dinosaur visited the American Museum of Natural History, and experienced the life-size models there for the first time. There were few subsequent school field trips that came close to measuring up to the awesomeness of that experience.
Dinosaur books are an easy sell and STOMP AND CHOMP, with its colorful, oversized, mixed-media depictions of dozens of dinosaur species, will be no exception. It makes a lot of sense for the publisher to be promoting it for the preschool and kindergarten crowd (ages 2 through 5).
But so much of this book will be wasted on the rugrats. This, to me, is an excellent picture book for older readers. It will be the upper elementary students, who already have experience with dinosaur books, classroom lessons, and possibly field trips, who will glory in this one. While the little ones “ooh!” and “ah!” over the pictures, it will be the bigger kids who will be impressed by all the new species that have been discovered in recent decades. They will try decoding the Latin syllabification, and reading aloud the descriptive and fun poems. (Some teachers will be smart enough to have students each memorize one of the poems.) The backmatter is minimal, but I searched a sampling of the facts cited, and they all appeared accurate and up-to-date.
The bottom line: STOMP AND CHOMP is a seriously tasty addition to kids dinosaur lit. Pair it with Brian Selznick’s Caldecott Honor book on Waterhouse Hawkins.
“THERIZINOSAURUS: A RECIPE
(THAIR-uh-ZEEN-uh-SAUR-us)
Carefully remove one evil sea serpent
from a fairy tale or myth,
then whack it on the body
of an oversize potbellied ostrich.
Grab a fancy feathery peacock tail
and heat it in the shape-shifter
until it quadruples in size.
Add it to the mix. Leave to settle.
Now here’s the final touch!
Six swords, roughly the length of your arm.
Sprinkle three on each side,
and stand well back.
A Cretaceous specialty
best served with caution.”
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/
richiepartington@gmail.com
“You know tyrannosaurus rex was destroyed before
By a furry little ball that crawled along
The primeval jungle floor
He stole the eggs of the dinosaur
Close your eyes & create the sound
Open your hands & rebuild the ground
We are egg snatchers! (egg snatchers!)”
– Paul Kantner (1970)
“Natural history artist Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins unveiled his dinosaur sculptures in 1854. These were the world’s first full-scale reconstructions of dinosaurs and represent the first three species discovered. Dinosaurs were still a relatively new discovery in the mid-1800s.”
– from the (British) Natural History Museum website
“PARASAUROLOPHUS ECHOES
(PAIR-uh-saw-RAWL-uh-fus)
When a Parasaurolophus blows air
through the tubes and passageways in its crest,
when its breath whooshes up the little tunnels inside,
it lets out a long…low…bellowing…cry,
Scientifically shown to be a similar sound
to a cow playing a trumpet in a cave,
Or a goose troupe tooting kazoos.
Or one very grizzly goat
with a didgeridoo.
And, OK, that got a little silly, but
imagine hundreds and hundreds in a herd:
each calling to another, back and forth.
A constant chorus. Deep. Majestic.
Echoing for miles and miles,
Echoing through the forest.
Echoing up past the treetops
and out into the sky.”
Since the days of Waterhouse Hawkins, little kids (and not-so-little kids) have been transfixed by the enormity and exoticness of dinosaurs. During the 1961-62 school year, this old dinosaur visited the American Museum of Natural History, and experienced the life-size models there for the first time. There were few subsequent school field trips that came close to measuring up to the awesomeness of that experience.
Dinosaur books are an easy sell and STOMP AND CHOMP, with its colorful, oversized, mixed-media depictions of dozens of dinosaur species, will be no exception. It makes a lot of sense for the publisher to be promoting it for the preschool and kindergarten crowd (ages 2 through 5).
But so much of this book will be wasted on the rugrats. This, to me, is an excellent picture book for older readers. It will be the upper elementary students, who already have experience with dinosaur books, classroom lessons, and possibly field trips, who will glory in this one. While the little ones “ooh!” and “ah!” over the pictures, it will be the bigger kids who will be impressed by all the new species that have been discovered in recent decades. They will try decoding the Latin syllabification, and reading aloud the descriptive and fun poems. (Some teachers will be smart enough to have students each memorize one of the poems.) The backmatter is minimal, but I searched a sampling of the facts cited, and they all appeared accurate and up-to-date.
The bottom line: STOMP AND CHOMP is a seriously tasty addition to kids dinosaur lit. Pair it with Brian Selznick’s Caldecott Honor book on Waterhouse Hawkins.
“THERIZINOSAURUS: A RECIPE
(THAIR-uh-ZEEN-uh-SAUR-us)
Carefully remove one evil sea serpent
from a fairy tale or myth,
then whack it on the body
of an oversize potbellied ostrich.
Grab a fancy feathery peacock tail
and heat it in the shape-shifter
until it quadruples in size.
Add it to the mix. Leave to settle.
Now here’s the final touch!
Six swords, roughly the length of your arm.
Sprinkle three on each side,
and stand well back.
A Cretaceous specialty
best served with caution.”
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/
richiepartington@gmail.com
November 5, 2023
STOMP AND CHOMP: MY FIRST BOOK OF DINOSAURS complies a lot of information in a way that's easy for children to understand with lyrical writing. It's broken up into four sections: Meet the Dinosaurs, Eat or Be Eaten, Dinosaur Families, and The End or Is It. There's an introduction so the readers can understand what to expect to get out of this book. In the Meet the Dinosaur section, we get a basic profile of common dinosaurs written in a fun and engaging way. In the Eat or Be Eaten section, we learn what a lot of the dinosaurs eat and the different types of eaters. I like how the More Than Enough page is vertical and shows a scale of a large tree in comparison to three dinosaurs while explaining how they utilize every part of the tree. In Dinosaur Families, we learn how they group together and in The End or Is It, the reader learns about fossils.
The illustrations are bold and vibrant with simplistic details. In the back of the book, there's a dinosaur timeline that goes into a little of each of the different time periods. This book is packed with so much information that it'll keep dinosaur lovers occupied for a while. I love how some parts read like a fact book and others are like a poem. The different styles of writing and formatting of the illustrations keeps readers on their toes.
Final Verdict: I would recommend this to young children who love dinosaurs and who want to know more. It's a great addition to a child's growing library of dinosaur books and it's a perfect first dinosaur book.
The illustrations are bold and vibrant with simplistic details. In the back of the book, there's a dinosaur timeline that goes into a little of each of the different time periods. This book is packed with so much information that it'll keep dinosaur lovers occupied for a while. I love how some parts read like a fact book and others are like a poem. The different styles of writing and formatting of the illustrations keeps readers on their toes.
Final Verdict: I would recommend this to young children who love dinosaurs and who want to know more. It's a great addition to a child's growing library of dinosaur books and it's a perfect first dinosaur book.
October 15, 2023
Ken je een dinofan? Dan is dit het moment om even te stoppen met scrollen en dit bericht te lezen! Er zijn al heel wat boeken over en met dino's verschenen, maar dit is echt een prachtexemplaar. Een groot en stevig boek, met een kleurrijke uitstraling dat erom roept om open geslagen te worden. Het heet je op deze manier welkom in de wereld van de dinosauriërs. Diverse soorten zijn mooi in beeld gebracht en in korte, duidelijke teksten op rijm leer en ontdek je meer over desbetreffende dino.
Waar ik persoonlijk erg enthousiast over ben is dat het kinderen van diverse leeftijden aan zal spreken. Het jonge kind, dat houdt van grote platen waarop veel te zien is en waarbij de teksten kunnen worden voorgelezen. Tot het kind dat leert lezen en de teksten zelf kan lezen en het oudere kind dat er lekker door kan bladeren en wellicht meer uit de teksten haalt of zelf op onderzoek gaat naar meer informatie.
Al met al een prachtig boek!
Waar ik persoonlijk erg enthousiast over ben is dat het kinderen van diverse leeftijden aan zal spreken. Het jonge kind, dat houdt van grote platen waarop veel te zien is en waarbij de teksten kunnen worden voorgelezen. Tot het kind dat leert lezen en de teksten zelf kan lezen en het oudere kind dat er lekker door kan bladeren en wellicht meer uit de teksten haalt of zelf op onderzoek gaat naar meer informatie.
Al met al een prachtig boek!
October 30, 2023
A First Book of Dinosaurs by Simon Mole is a large, slightly heavy, hardback book filled to the brim with colourful dinosaurs.
The book is split into sections:
-Meet the Dinosaurs
-Eat or be Eaten
-Dinosaur Families
-The End. Or is it?
All of the information is written in a rhyming style, and whilst there is some factual information in there don't expect the usual fact section that tells you everything from location, to timeline, what they ate, etc. This is more of a fun dinosaur book than an educational one.
The illustrations are large and fill most of the pages and they are matte too. The text though is written in black throughout but sometimes it was hard to see when the background was for say dark green.
Overall, if you are looking for a fun dinosaur book to go along with a factual one then this would work.
The book is split into sections:
-Meet the Dinosaurs
-Eat or be Eaten
-Dinosaur Families
-The End. Or is it?
All of the information is written in a rhyming style, and whilst there is some factual information in there don't expect the usual fact section that tells you everything from location, to timeline, what they ate, etc. This is more of a fun dinosaur book than an educational one.
The illustrations are large and fill most of the pages and they are matte too. The text though is written in black throughout but sometimes it was hard to see when the background was for say dark green.
Overall, if you are looking for a fun dinosaur book to go along with a factual one then this would work.
January 4, 2024
All the things you wanted to know about dinosaurs big and small, in small manageable poetic chunks. Learn about the meat-eaters and the plant-eaters and everything in-between.
This is a fun introduction to the world of dinosaurs. Each page offers a pronunciation guide so your budding paleontologist can correctly tell everyone what their favorite dinosaur is. The book covers over 30+ dinosaurs in a variety of poetic formats, so this could work in a science class or in an ELA class too.
This is a fun introduction to the world of dinosaurs. Each page offers a pronunciation guide so your budding paleontologist can correctly tell everyone what their favorite dinosaur is. The book covers over 30+ dinosaurs in a variety of poetic formats, so this could work in a science class or in an ELA class too.
July 15, 2025
This is a little different to most dinosaur books on the market, and all the better for it! 'A first book of Dinosaurs' by Simon Mole is gorgeous, brightly illustrated hardback containing a plethera of fun poems about all the favourites, as well as some you might not have heard of (and even one about poo - always popular!) plus more FACTS than you can shake a fossil at. A perfect gift for the mini-palaeontologist in your life - prepare to read it again and again!
January 6, 2024
Classified as a poetry book in my library, most of the poems were a little eh. The illustrations were okay. The information provided was okay. I suppose as a first book of dinosaurs it might be okay, but I wasn't wowed by it and it would be a book I would immediately recommend.
December 1, 2023
one word: Amazing!
December 7, 2023
Good starting point for kids to discover information about dinosaurs. Well organized!
Want to Read
February 4, 2026E
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews