Our Favorite Dinosaur Picture Books

I always encourage my kids to help choose books when we go to the library. I want them to feel some ownership in picking out their own books, and I also want them to get familiar with how the books are organized. Juvenile fiction is traditionally organized in alphabetical order by the author's last name, but at our library, the first two shelves are sorted by topic, which makes it so easy for my kids to find books they are interested in. My four-year-old makes a bee-line for the dinosaur books every. single. week. Consequently, we have read pretty much every dino book on the shelf. If you are looking for great picture books about dinosaurs, I've gotcha covered. Here are our favorites broken down into age groups and fiction/non-fiction.

For the toddler/preschool crowd:

1. Tyrannosaurus Wrecks! by Sudipta Bardan-Qualan, illustrated by Zachariah O'Hora. All the little dinosaurs are happily playing and learning...until Tyrannosaurus wrecks! Can the other dinosaurs help teach him Tyrannosaurus to play nicely? I love a good play on words, and the clever title together with the the snappy rhymes and bold colors made me instantly fall in love with this book!

2. Dinosaur Kisses by David Ezra Stein. A newly hatched T-Rex wants to try out every new thing she sees. She tries a stomp, then a whomp, and then she sees a kiss and wants to try that next! But it turns out little T-Rexes aren't very good kissers and she accidentally stomps and whomps everything she tries to kiss. The spare text, simple illustrations, and slapstick humor give this book tons of little-kid appeal! (This one had my four-year-old absolutely ROLLING.)

3. Dinosaur vs Bedtime by Bob Shea. Little dinosaur conquers every foe he meets, from a big pile of leaves to talking grownups. But can he defeat bedtime? Little kids can't resist this one, especially with all the "Roar, Roar, ROAR!"

4. Roar! A Dinosaur Tour by Michael Paul. This book is a great non-fiction introduction to dinosaurs for young readers. The text is informative yet brief and the colorful illustrations are eye-catching. It's hard to find non-fiction books that are simple enough for young kids but not mind-numbing for parents to read over and over. Roar! A Dinosaur Tour finds that perfect balance. Highly recommend!

5. Bigger Than You! by Hyewon Kyung. As little dinosaurs of different sizes play on a see-saw, each one taunts the smaller one saying, "I'm bigger than you!" No one is having much fun until they find a better way to all play together. I loved how this simple story gets kids thinking about problem solving. I also love the ink-print illustrations and the informational pages at the end that teach the names of the dinosaurs as well as the different types of simple machines.

6. How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague. All the books in this series are great, but this one is my favorite. It captures toddler's manners (or lack of) perfectly and will have both kids and parents smiling!

For older kids: Fiction

1. Tea Rex by Molly Idle. Yes, the title is another dinosaur pun, and I love it for that reason alone. But Tea Rex is a gem of a book in every possible way. It's adorable, clever, and funny. And the illustrations are full of detail and are really what tell the story. If you just read the text without the pictures, the book would simply be a step-by-step guide to hosting the perfect tea party. No mention of dinosaurs at all. Which is why it's so dang funny! For example, the text says simply, "Lead your guest through to the parlor" while the illustration shows a little girl and her brother tugging with all their might to pull a bow-tie wearing T-Rex through the too-small doorway. Tea Rex is one of those beautifully crafted picture books that will never get old and never fail to make me smile!

2. We Don't Eat our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins. Penelope Rex is nervous about starting school and wonders what her classmates will be like. She is more than a little surprised when she gets to school and all her classmates are children! So she eats them. (Because children are delicious.) This book is an absolute RIOT. It's a great one to read with kids before the first day of school. Not only will it get them laughing but they can feel comforted knowing that whatever happens on the first day, at least no one will eat each other! ;) And even though it's wildly funny, We Don't Eat Our Classmates, is a great way to start a discussion about making friends and treating others the way we want to be treated. Also, Penelope is the most adorable T-Rex I've ever seen.

3. Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems. Mo Willems plus dinosaurs equals mixed-up fairy tale magic. I think it may be my favorite book of Mo's, and that's saying something! (Click here for a list of my favorite fractured fairy tales.)

4. The Three Triceratops Tough by Steve Shasken. Another fabulous fairy tale featuring a cast of dinos! Shaskan's illustrations are simple yet engaging and I love how he gives each of the Triceratops brothers a distinct personality. I love reading this one aloud and and giving each character a different voice, especially the deep, menacing growl of the Tyrannosaurus Rex!

5. Stegothesaurus by Bridget Heos, illustrated by T. L. McBeth. Stegothesaurus is a bit different than his two brothers. When they see a mountain, his brothers say "Big." Stegothesaurus says, "Gargantuan, gigantic, Goliath!" When they eat some shrubs his brothers say, "Yummy." Stegothesaurus says, "Savory, succulent, scrumptious!" When they meet an Allosaurus, his brothers say, "Scary!" and run away. But what will Stegothesaurus do? Stegothesaurus is smart and funny and the surprise ending is just great. I also loved the duo-chromatic illustrations. Be sure to check this one out. It's superb/stellar/stupendous! (See what I did there??) ;)

For older kids: Non-fiction

1. National Geographic's Little Kids First Big Book of Dinosaurs by Catherine D. Hughes and illustrated by Franco Tepesta. I love these National Geographic "Big Books." The pictures are vivid and colorful, the headings are big and bold, they are organized in a way that makes sense, and they are packed with information. I especially love this one for two other reasons. One, it has all the dinosaur pronunciations (Can you pronounce micropachcephalosaurus? Because I can thanks to this book.) It has the dinosaurs listed by size with the categories being small, big, giant, and GIGANTIC) and each page has a sillouhette of a kid standing next to the dinosaur, which I think is a great way for kids to visualize how big the dinosaurs actually were. This book is waaayy too long for a typical read-aloud, but I'll tell you my secret for non-fiction books like this with an excess of information: just read the headings and one or maybe two captions per each page. And just skip all the rest. Your kid will never know! Until they become an independent reader in which case, you can tell them to read it themselves. ;)

2. Who Would Win? Tyrannosaurus vs Velociraptor by Jerry Pallotta and Rob Bolster. This is another awesome non-fiction series. Even though they are geared towards the 8-12-year-old crowd, my four-year-old is obsessed with these books! In this one, the author matches a Tyrannosaurus Rex against a Velociraptor, comparing each of their strength and weaknesses and asking the reader to predict who would win. It ends with an imaginary battle and kids love seeing if their prediction was correct!

3. Did Dinosaurs Eat People? And Other Questions Kids Have About Dinosaurs by Donna H. Bowman. This book take questions submitted by actual kids and gives them a simple, succinct answer. Any questions kids have about dinosaurs, silly or serious, are likely to be answered in this book!

4. You Can be a Paleontologist! Discovering Dinosaurs with Dr. Scott. If you've ever seen Dinosaur Train on PBS, Dr. Scott is the paleontologist from the show. In this book, he tells kids everything they need to do to become a paleontologist when they grow up...and what they can start doing now!

What are your favorite dino-stories?