Cue for everyone to say “Aaah”, which I duly did, and my little 4 year-old Turkish friend smiled from ear to ear and pronounced it “Good”.

The dinosaur children give their prehistoric parents great big hugs and kisses, cleverly use their enormous tails to turn out the light, tuck themselves in, and whisper, “Good night”.

The answer is no, they most certainly do not! And then we find out how they DO behave, which is very cute indeed. We try pouting like they do, in that funny fashion. We chuckle along, knowing that they are being very silly and look ludicrous. The delaying tactics and tantrums employed by these young dinosaurs will be very familiar to young readers! And each time, although we see what appears to be the dinosaur behaving in this way, we learn that no, that is not what they did. As well as the variety of dinosaurs, the parents are also very diverse, representing all sorts of people from many different ethnic groups. Cleverly, the name of each appears somewhere in the picture, either as a name on the door, inscribed on end of the bed, or perhaps spelled out in coloured play bricks on the floor. Each is a different type of dinosaur, whether a Tyrannosaurus Rex, a Triceratops, a Stegosaurus, a Pteranodon, an Allosaurus or many more favourite dinosaurs. The illustrator, Mark Teague uses various different perspectives in his full-page pictures, making the reader laugh out loud sometimes at the antics of the dinosaur child. It has lots of repetition perfect if a young child is just beginning to recognise initial letters and be able to predict odd words.

When Papa comes in to turn off the light? The very short commentary – just one sentence per page or less – is all in rhyme: The lively details in the pictures lead to lots of observational chat between those sharing the book, and the expression on the faces on both humans and dinosaurs is priceless. Part of what amuses us, is that every single one is crammed into a tiny child’s bed, with human “parents” coming to tuck them in at night. In this one, we follow the antics of eleven different dinosaur children at bedtime. The books convey useful information about these situations children find themselves in, showing different way of behaving, and what they might lead to. There are 23 such books so far, each describing a specific scenario. All the books depict situations familiar to every young child: how to eat their food, play with their friends, clean their room, stay safe, learn to read, and so on. Written by Jane Yolen, and illustrated with great humour by Mark Teague, it was published in 2000 as one in a series of “How do dinosaurs …” books. How do dinosaurs say good night? is a cute picture book to share with very young children.

How does a dinosaur say goodnight