It’s flu season, just when we were having so much fun with cold season. Kids are miserable when they’re sick; they can’t play and oftentimes they don’t understand why we want them to take medicine and get some sleep. “How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?” by Jane Yolen just may help with that.
From the moment you first crack open the book, you are treated to a darling selection of illustrations all over the flyleaves, each showing a dinosaur sick in bed. Some are sneezing, some are sipping tea, and some are checking their temperature on a thermometer.
Then we turn the page and go to the doctor, and read: “What if a dinosaur catches the flu? Does he whimper and whine between each Atchoo?” We see a huge triceratops sitting atop the examining table, looking completely miserable.
From there we see another dinosaur dropping tissues all over his floor, and yet another refusing to take his medicine. A Euoplocephalus won’t keep his covers on, and a Brachiosaurus has his head in a bucket.
This book has a double purpose; first, to teach the children the names of the dinosaurs. Every picture is labeled so you know what species you’re looking at. The second purpose is to help children understand the need to be cooperative while sick. The last few pages show dinosaurs drinking their juice, staying in bed, and doing what their mommies and daddies tell them to do so they can get well.
I was particularly intrigued by the illustrations. Each dinosaur was rendered realistically but with personality. I think parents and children alike will find the pictures fascinating, and we all know that’s a plus in a picture book.
If you’ve got a grumpy dinosaur sick in bed, pick up this book and make their day a little brighter. (I was going to say something about having a dino-riffic day, but I didn’t want to get lots of nasty private messages.)
(This book was published in 2003 by the Blue Sky Press and was illustrated by Mark Teague.)
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