Storybook Corner Book Review: Dinosaur Roar! & Ten Terrible Dinosaurs (Children's Picture Book)

This week I have two adorably ferocious storybooks that have stood the test of time and have recently been reissued to continue to delight children everywhere.

Dinosaur Roar!

by

Paul Strickland & Henrietta Strickland

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Publication date: 8th January 2019

Pages: 30

RRP: $14.99

Format Read: Paperback

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

About the Book :

A celebratory edition of this classic book, now twenty-five years old and never out of print. Produced from re-scanned original artwork, and endorsed by the National History Museum, this rollicking rhyming text is a joy to read aloud, and the charming images will appeal to the very youngest dinosaur fans.

Originally published in 1994, Dinosaur Roar! by Henrietta and Paul Strickland is now seen as a modern classic, a book that every preschool child will love.

 My thoughts:

Dinosaur Roar! immediately catches the eye with its striking silver foil cover. It features a fiercely roaring T-Rex with a small dinosaur looking suitably unimpressed. Inside is a double spread with all sorts of dinosaurs to feast your eyes on; every shape, colour and size imaginable.

The wording is simple and kept to a minimum with large text that jumps off the page. The illustrations are vibrant and whimsical, with emphasis on each dinosaurs features and expressions bringing them to life on the page.

Both Dot and Ditto are enthusiastic dinosaur fans and are eager to have the book read over and over, each reading being an educational experience with the use of opposites in the text and a natural cadence in the rhyming of words. Dot quickly learnt what was to come next and enjoyed joining in.

I had to include Ditto’s favourite page. He is enthralled by this slimy dinosaur and keeps turning back to look at and touch this page over and over.

The Dinosaurs may be different in many ways but they all come together at the end.

At the back of the book is a gorgeous pull-out poster, featuring all the dinosaurs in their colourful glory, which can be framed and would delight any toddler.

This book is now ready to be discovered by a whole new generation.

Rated by Dot & Jay 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

                                Ten Terrible Dinosaurs

                                                by

                                       Paul Strickland

 

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Publication date: 8th January 2019 

Pages: 48

RRP: $14.99

Format Read: Paperback

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

About the book:

Ten Terrible Dinosaurs, a lively counting book first published in 1997 and now reissued, is based on the characters from Dinosaur Roar!, a picture book that is now recognised as a modern classic. The rhyming text encourages children to join in, helping them to learn their numbers as they count down from ten to one.

My thoughts:

Once again Paul Strickland’s dinosaurs have come out to delight young dinosaur fans with a rip roaring counting book. The front cover features our ten terrible dinosaurs, who are in fact happy, smiling dinosaurs and look like they are ready to have some fun.

Strickland uses the tried and true method of rhyming verse in this educational and fun counting book. Starting at ten with a large number 10 in digits at the start of the text, the ten terrible dinosaurs are standing in a line.

The watercolour illustrations are bright and whimsical, but as we know dinosaurs can be cheeky and they soon begin to mess around. It gets a bit rough and one poor dinosaur is scared so leaves. When the page is turned the number 9 is shown in digits first and then the text.

This book was another hit here. I really don’t think the children will ever tire of playing with, looking at and reading about dinosaurs.

I liked that the numbers were in digits and text side by side which gives a visual connection of the two.

Strickland’s use of alliteration and rhyming adds an extra element of fun to the reading and listening.

We had seven silly dinosaurs, five feisty dinosaurs and two tetchy dinosaurs. The book ends with a sneaky loud ROAR! Those dinosaurs really are tricky.

Ten Terrible Dinosaurs is a book that has been loved for the past two decades and is sure to be loved for decades to come.

Reissued in association with the Natural History Museum making these books true children’s classics.

Rated by Dot & Jay 5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

 About the authors:

Paul Strickland is an illustrator, author and pop-up book engineer. Since leaving school he has had a long illustrious career with his drawings and illustrations, working on many different projects but he is best known for his work in children's books, most notably as the illustrator of the modern classic Dinosaur Roar! He lives in Dorset with his wife and young daughter.

Henrietta Strickland has been creating children's books for thirty years, both as an author and also as a publisher specializing in new writers and illustrators. She lives on the Somerset/Dorset border with her four sons and a menagerie of animals.

 

 

Book Review: Bridge of Clay (Literary Fiction)

Book Bingo 2019 #3 'Literary Fiction'

Book Bingo is a reading challenge is hosted by Theresa Smith Writes , Mrs B’s Book Reviews and The Book Muse. Every second Saturday, book bingo participants reveal which bingo category they have read and what book they chose. 

 

Bridge of Clay 

by

Markus Zusak

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Publication date: 9th October 2018

Pages: 592

RRP: $32.99

Format Read: uncorrected paperback

Source: Courtesy of the publisher

 

 Bridge of Clay is about a boy who is caught in the current - of destroying everything he has, to become all he needs to be. He's a boy in search of greatness, as a cure for memory and tragedy. He builds a bridge to save his family, but also to save himself. It's an attempt to transcend humanness, to make a single, glorious moment:

A miracle and nothing less.

Markus Zusak makes his long-awaited return with a profoundly heartfelt and inventive novel about a family held together by stories, and a young life caught in the current: a boy in search of greatness, as a cure for a painful past.

 

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak was ten years in the making so I was expecting big things from this story and I wasn’t disappointed.

The story opens with Matthew, the oldest Dunbar boy, bringing home the old TW, the typewriter of a Grandmother they never knew.

Let me tell you about our brother.

The fourth Dunbar boy named Clay.

Everything happened to him.

We were all of us changed through him.

This is Clay’s story as told by Matthew in an omniscient point of view. Whilst Matthew insists this is Clay’s story it is in fact a story of the Dunbar family and how they came to be. This is Penelope Lesciuszko’s story, Michael Dunbar’s story and also their combined story with the lead up of what was to come and what it is now; a family of ramshackle tragedy.

Zusak’s short sentences read like poetry and you often need to stop and take in the meaning behind the words.

Both parents were readers, for their mother it was The Iliad and the Odyssey, for their father it was the Quarryman. The books are mentioned often and have great significance in the parents’ lives and that of the Dunbar boys. They were also great storytellers passing down to the boys not only their love of books but the stories of their own lives.

As much as you would think a story of five boys bringing themselves up would be rambunctious and unruly it is in fact tender, loving and intimate. That’s not to say the boys don’t bicker, fight and sometimes drink too much.

The story jumps around in time however the authors phrasing at the start of each new chapter makes it easy to tell exactly where you are in time.

This is a story of love, heartbreak, togetherness, family, despair, life, death, forgiveness and reconciliation. A family saga without all the unnecessary words.

I cried all the way through the second half of the book. Some 300 pages read through blurry tear filled eyes. Maybe being the mother of four sons brought a deeper connection. A felt I knew these boys and all their different personalities.

I think I’ve just read my best book of 2019. I’m not sure anything can top Bridge of Clay. Even before I’d finished the book I wanted to go back and read all those beautiful words again.

My Rating   5/5   ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

*This review is: 

Book 'B' in the AtoZ challenge 

and part of the Book Lover Book Review Aussie author challenge

#bookbingo2019 

 

Photo credit: Goodreads

Markus Zusak is the author of five books, including the international bestseller, The Book Thief , which spent more than a decade on the New York Times bestseller list, and is translated into more than forty languages – establishing Zusak as one of the most successful authors to come out of Australia.

To date, Zusak has held the number one position at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, the New York Times bestseller list, as well as in countries across South America, Europe and Asia.

His books, The Underdog, Fighting Ruben Wolfe, When Dogs Cry (also titled Getting the Girl ), The Messenger (or I am the Messenger ) and The Book Thief have been awarded numerous honours ranging from literary prizes to readers choice awards to prizes voted on by booksellers.

In a statement about his latest novel, Zusak said:"Clay Dunbar builds a bridge for a multitude of reasons:for his brothers and to honour his parents...but it's also an attempt at greatness. He builds a bridge to save himself, and to make a single beautiful moment: a miracle and nothing less."

Markus Zusak grew up in Sydney, Australia and still lives there with his wife and two children.