How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You?

How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You?

Written by: Jane Yolen

Illustrated by: Mark Teague

Age Group: Preschool and Kindergarten

Published: 2009

The book How do Dinosaurs say I Love You? Is a very creative book telling the readers that even when dinosaurs make mistakes they are still loved. The different dinosaurs will not take naps, not eat what is put in front of them, and throw sand in the sandbox outside, flood the house when playing in the sink. But looking past all of that, they hold the parents and in the grocery store, always say I love you and blow kisses, so that makes up for all the bad that they do.

Before I introduce this book, I would want to ask the children in the class how they think dinosaurs say I love you? I would say well we would find out about all the different ways. At the beginning of the book it also gives the names of all the dinosaurs that the book will include and talk about. A great activity for the students to look up is information about the different dinosaurs so they can be familiar with them before reading. For review on each page while reading, they also have the names again of the dinosaurs on the page under the picture of them.

The pictures in this book are great and so vibrant. The colors are just so bright and crisp and it makes me really get into the story. Since the book doesn’t have many words on each page, the pictures are what really do the trick for the book and for students to learn. The pictures are very funny and get the children reading it to laugh at the different expressions on the faces of the parents and the dinosaurs.

I would have this book in my classroom and I would definitely make it more than just a read aloud and do things for the students to get involved with a lesson. I would definitely want them to learn about the dinosaurs, and I would make this one of the book that they bring home to read with mom and dad. It is great how they show the dinosaurs doing both bad things that they know are wrong but then also good things where they get praised for them.