Dinosaurs Love Christmas, too!

This week, due to changes in my work schedule, my story time at the Base Library moved from Mondays to Tuesdays. I was gratified to see that several of my regulars made the switch and that we also had some new families join us. All told, there were ten kids in my audience. A great turn out for this little library in the middle of a military base.

At the public library I have seen a number of new books come across my desk, including a number of holiday books.  These have included several holiday books that feature dinosaurs...and so a storytime theme fell quite naturally into my lap.  What child can resist books about dinosaurs? Christmas?  BOTH???  I have collected quite a few dinosaur songs/rhymes and love that most of them feature fun actions ("Dinosaur Stomp" and "Five Little Dinosaurs" in which dinosaurs drop out of the rhyme by twirling, stomping etc. and each action ends with all the kids making a big dinosaur roar.)  For the craft, the kids made a "shapeasarus" using shapes cut out of construction paper. Each child carefully constructed a dinosaur, glued onto background paper and then created a holiday scene around their dinosaur with foam cutouts.  Everyone seemed to enjoy it.

Here are today's roaring good books:

The Dinosaurs' Night Before Christmas by Anne Muecke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is a wonderfully imaginative adaptation of Moore's epic poem, "T'was the Night Before Christmas."  The children, already familiar with the original poem loved this wonderful variation.  With great rhythm and rhyme the story tells of a young boys who stumbles upon the annual Christmas Eve dinosaur ball at the natural history museum in his neighborhood. The images of the dinosaurs coming to life, and of the wonderful party that follows are bright and detailed and full of fun.  Placing the star on the top of the dinosaurs tree and a visit from Santasaurus are wonderful ends to a magical night...and leave the reader wandering if this was a dream or holiday magic...especially the next morning when visitors to the museum wonder about the sprig of mistletoe that T. Rex is holding.  The book comes with a CD of dinosaur Christmas carols and Al Roker reading  the story.  I did use a couple of the carols in the opening and closing slide of my power point presentation, but this was a book I wanted to read to my audience.
Dinosaurs' Christmas by Liza Donnelly
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was published in 1991.  It tells the tale of a boy and his dog, Bones, who have quite an adventure when they meet a dinosaur who needs help - it seems that Santa and his elves are making dinosaurs all wrong!  Together the dinosaur and boy help the elves make corrections and then go on to save Christmas - all the reindeer have the flu and so the sleigh is pulled by dinosaur and half a dozen of his close friends.  There are quite a few proper dinosaur names in the text (consult the glossary in the back of the book BEFORE reading it out loud) and a simplicity to text and illustrations that books of this era possess.  It was a nice contrast to some of the other books we read with wild  text and even wilder illustrations.

How Do Dinosaurs Say Merry Christmas? by Jane Yolen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
With its text filled with questions, there is plenty of opportunity to engage a storytime audience in the story and have them interact with the reading by answering the question before turning the page.  Having some interaction between pages allows the audience more time to absorb the wonderful illustrations which fill this book.  Although some of the behaviors would have landed dinosaur on the "naughty list" in the last portion of the book we find that dinosaur actually behaves quite well - he even clears away his dinner dishes - and so my audience decided that he was actually going to be on the "nice list."  A fun, interactive, storytime read.

Dinosaur vs. Santa by Bob Shea

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Bob Shea's feisty red dinosaur roars his way through holiday preparations with wild abandon, much to the delight of my storytime audience.  They joined me in roaring along with dinosaur and cheered with each "win."  He writes his letter to Santa, decorates his tree, makes presents for his mom and dad, and avoids tempting cookies - all wins.  But will he fall asleep on Christmas Eve for a final win???  This is a wonderfully silly book which my audience quite enjoyed.