Dino-Christmas, a children’s book to make Jimmie Walker proud

Parents of a certain age have a Pavlovian response when they hear or see the name Jimmie Walker. For me and those other parents, that term is a wide-mouthed grin of “DYNOMITE”. His catch phrase from the classic television series Good Times defined a generation of viewers in the 70’s and helps make certain kids retro-cool today. The Dino book series by Lisa Wheeler, with illustrations by Barry Got makes ages 4-8 have the same emotion and think the same thing, even if they don’t say dynomite and Dino-Christmas continues their win streak.

Dino-Christmas enters the Dino-series with all of the seasonal glee that giant decorating and shopping lizards can muster. Put your paleontologist hat aside for this book. You’ll see all manner of Raptors, Triceratops, Allosaurus, Gallimimus and more exist and play side by side. They have decorating competitions, toss out candy in the Dino-Christmas Parade, and cheer when they see Santa Claws and more.

This is a lovely book series that both our boys thoroughly enjoyed when they were four years old. The seven year-old still enjoys the book series and Dino-Christmas was a welcome addition to his seasonal books.

The text in Dino-Christmas is at a level that second graders will be able to read it themselves. Our first grade student can read half of the book, but still wants us to read it to him. Those younger readers-and parents, will really enjoy the book as it has rhyming text every two lines. The fact that the period between rhyming stanzas is so short helps move the book along at a brisk, enjoyable pace that those kindergarten audiences will appreciate.

The amazing part of Dino-Christmas and the entire book series is how long the book’s legs are. Normally a book that is attractive to the pre-K audience doesn’t translate too far to older audiences. The manic illustrations of a wide variety of dinosaurs doing all sorts of things that are topical to each book is why the book is of any interest to those older kids.

The art is detailed. We can easily make out the dinosaur sugar cookies being devoured by T. Rex and Raptor. Apatosaurus is throwing out candy canes and Ankylosaurus is driving a float. The art is fun and makes kids want to stay in the book so that they can see the art for a longer period of time.

Dino-Christmas is a worthy addition to one of the great book series that will be with your child from pre-K through third grade. It’s also a bonus that the book is short enough to re-read twice and has enough detail in the illustrations to stretch out so that you can only read it once. That is the lead criteria to make this a great-good night book.