Dinosaur Books for Toddlers

Why it worksOpposites done as dinosaurs - roar and squeak, fat and tiny, above and below - at two words a page, so a one-year-old can shout half the book. The dinner-table spread at the end is the one they stop on every time.

Worth knowingAround sixty words in total. It is squarely a toddler book and a three-year-old will exhaust it in a week.

Why it worksOne texture patch per page and one sentence frame - 'That's not my dinosaur, its scales are too bumpy' - which is how a toddler picks up texture words. The mouse hides on every spread, giving them a second job once they know the words.

Worth knowingEight pages of the same sentence. Adults tire of it long before the child does.

Why it worksTen dinosaurs drive ten different machines - digger, dumper, roller, crane - each counted and named, so a dinosaur-obsessed child and a digger-obsessed child get the same book. The reveal that they have been building themselves a mud pool to bathe in is the page they turn back to.

Why it worksThe same trick as Dinosaur Dig but with things that move fast - motorbike, jeep, helicopter, hot-air balloon - and a real 'where are they all rushing to?' question underneath, answered by a birthday party. The engine noises give a barely-verbal toddler a part to perform.

Worth knowingVery close in structure to the other Penny Dale dinosaur books; buying two at once makes both feel thinner.

Why it worksEvery stalling tactic a child has ever tried is performed by an enormous dinosaur crammed into a small bedroom, and because the text asks 'Does he...?' the child gets to answer. Under ninety seconds, which is what matters at the wrong end of a long bedtime.

Why it worksThe first half lists everything a dinosaur does wrong when ill - throws the thermometer, refuses the medicine, wipes his nose on the sheets - and children shout NO at each one before the book turns and does it properly. Every dinosaur's species name is hidden in its picture, which gives a dinosaur-obsessed child a second book inside the first.

Why it worksThe dinosaur roars 'ROAR ROAR ROAR!' and insists he does not need to go, right up until he does - so the child gets to be loud and defiant for eight pages and then watch the climbdown happen to someone else. The only potty book in this set a child asks for again for fun.

Why it worksThe book keeps warning you about spicy salsa in a deadpan voice, so a four-year-old spends the whole read anticipating the disaster and screams when the dragons burn the house down. Reading it as a straight-faced instruction manual is what makes it work.

Worth knowingThe joke depends on delivery; read flatly it is just a list. Also a fire and a burnt-down house, which a couple of children take literally.