We Saw a Spinosaurus product reviews

The illustrations in this story are not your typical children's book type, they are dark muted colours, with large looming 'scary' shadows. When images of the actual dinosaurs come, there are glimpses of them in the beginning, encouraging the readers to predict who is creeping around the school. This draws the children into the story encouraging their prediction and the darker colours prompt a 'scary' (in a very child friendly way) element. As the book progresses the images get lighter and brighter, helping to 'tell' the story in a way that children can immediately connect with, and helps them to 'read' or recall, the story once they are familiar with it, without an adults help.

The text is a mixture of real dinosaur names, and made-up words, to ensure that it rhymes, as with all good children's books there is an element of repetition, which encourages the children to join in with the story. The words are printed on the page in a fun way, that lead the readers eyes, any key words are written in bold, to help the reader emphasise them.

The author is encouraging children not to fear the unknown, and it's based in a school setting, so it opens up conversations around settling in at school and making new friends. For a dinosaur lover this would be a great book. It's probably not one I would add to my collection, as a favourite daily read, but I think for a child that had anxiety about new situations or starting school it would be a great tool.