Messy-o-saurus product reviews

Messy o Saurus is a delight from first sight. The bright cover and fun dinosaurs caught my miss 4's eye from a mile away. The playful illustrations and bright colours are inviting and we were both excited to cuddle up and read together. I chose this book based on my little girl being my real life messy o saurus and it couldn't of been more fitting.

Oh the mess the little girl in the story made, or should I say the messy o saurus or the bouncing boo galas? Such fun playful words used for all the wonderful made up creatures it really does make for entertaining reading. Our favourite was definitely the fangle fangle which looked staggeringly similar to a cute family dog. The names had my little one in absolute hysterics!

Ironically my sweet child has been known to spin a good yarn when it comes to the creators of awful messes. Many soft toys and dolls have taken the blame for such happenings in our house. The imagination of children is perfectly captured in this sweet story. The mum and daughter relationship reminded me of my own mother-daughter relationship and I couldn't help but smile. Having a messy o saurus of my own I certainly relate to the mum listening to her daughters stories and quietly tidying up.

This is a book we can't help but read over and over and over again but I really don't mind because I enjoy the story almost as much as my girl. Drawing her in for a big hug at the end telling her just how much I love my own little messy o saurus. I must admit though we may of added just a few more imaginary characters that make messes around here.

This book immediately invites you to pick it up and read it. The bright yellow cover with the joyful dinosaur radiates fun. When you open the pages, the illustrations are rich and colourful, there are so many details to be observed and to chat about with your child. The images give clues to the story, the little girls shadow is a dinosaur with pig tails just like her. One of the children I was reading to, realised that the dinosaur towards the end was the family dog, but the first time we read it they didn't notice the girl, but the next few times (Yes this is a book you will read over and over to the ever-growing delight of the children) they excitedly waited till that page so they could show me, that it was really the little girl making all the mess. As a teacher, I loved that this was a story about a little girl who was passionate about dinosaurs, as not only were her imaginary friends dinosaurs, she had many dinosaur toys around her room.

The story itself has lots of repetition in the text, this is great for encouraging young readers to join in and be a part of the story. The children that I was reading to begin to anticipate the text and would look at me and "read" "Did the messy-o-saurus do this?" They giggled at the creative names of the dinosaurs and would tell me that there's no dinosaurs called that. The words rhyme and flow, delighting the children as they are fun, and have a lovely rhythm to them as you read aloud.

For me the best facet of this book is the relationship between the Mum and her daughter, the Mum plays along with the little girl, seriously asking if the mess is made by the messy-o-saurus, and quietly tidies while the child shares the dinosaurs from her imagination. Until at the end she shares that the mess was made by her, and she gives her Mum a beautiful cuddle. This makes this book a great tool for sharing how happy the Mum was that she told her the truth, we had a chat at the end. and I asked the preschooler's if they thought she was helping her Mum tidy after her play time. (They all thought she was) and they went on to invent a tidy-o-saurus who would be the helping dinosaur!

A truly wonderful book, that will be read and enjoyed many times, and will help build your child's understanding of rhyming words, and the fun that reading can bring. I definitely recommend purchasing this and adding it to your bookshelf.