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DINOVEMBER: An All-Ages Reading List

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Raych Krueger

Staff Writer

Raych has so many kids (like, two, but they’re super young, which makes it seem like there are more of them) and this really cuts into her reading time. She’s using her degrees in Early Childhood Education and English Literature to teach the toddler to read to the baby so she can get back to her trashy Victorian sensation novel, or whatever. She’s also teaching her kids to travel and eat broadly, mostly through example (Do As I Do is super important, you guys), and hasn’t gone a year without hopping on a plane since she was a teenager. She recently moved from the Canadian coast to the Canadian prairies, where it gets hella cold, and if not for the internet, she’d surely be dead. Blog: Books I Done Read Twitter: @raychraych

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Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving in the wrong month, so that it gets swallowed by goblins and ghouls and come November it’s like wtf do I seasonally decorate my door with now.

Dinosaurs, bitches. It’s Dinovember.

via GIPHY

Hooray!

Dinovember conveniently and low-keyedly bridges the gap between Halloween and Christmas. It requires zero preparation except maybe buying a few plastic dinosaurs and then moving them around your house after your kids go to bed. It has all the magical whimsy of Elf on the Shelf, with none of the Big Brother creepiness. It is fucking fantastic.

If you’re feeling dinofestive, here are some dinoreads for every era age group.

All ages

[Edited to add, because I forgot, because in my head it was so obvious] What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night – Refe Tuma, Susan Tuma (originators of Dinovember and enthusiastic dinohijinxers)

The Smithsonian Dinosaur! Book is incredible and large and full of IMAGERY! And FACTS!

Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time – James Gurney

 

Board books

Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs – Sandra Boynton (this is basically the best book for babies ever written, dinosaurs completely aside)

Also Dinos to Go: 7 Nifty Dinosaurs in 1 Swell Book by her Boyntonness

The How do Dinosaurs (Clean Their Rooms; Say Goodnight; Eat Their Food) series – Jane Yolen

Goodnight, Dinosaur – Mark Jasper, Adam Gamble

My First Dinosaur Board Book – Dorling Dk

via GIPHY

I am, actually. That’s why I have so many board books.
Picture Books

Digger the Dinosaur – Rebecca Dotlich

Harry and the Dinosaurs: Roar to the Rescue – Ian Whybrow

Mad Scientist Academy: The Dinosaur Disaster– Matthew McElligott (comic)

Dinosaur! – Peter Sís (no words! Only pictures)

Winnie’s Dinosaur Day – Valérie Thomas

 

Middle Grade

Feather Brain – Maureen Bush

The Magic Treehouse: Dinosaurs Before Dark – Mary Pope Osborne

Dinosaur Boy – Cory Putman Oakes

Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur – Mordecai Richler

Mom, There’s a Dinosaur in Beeson’s Lake – Trudi Trueit

The Fossil Factory: A Kid’s Guide to Digging Up Dinosaurs, Exploring Evolution, and Finding Fossils – Niles, Gregory, and Douglas Eldredge

 

Young Adult

Z. Rex (and the rest of the Z. [Dinosaur Name] novels) – Steve Cole

Age of Reptiles – Ricardo Delgado (wordless graphic novel, KINDA GORY, not for littles)

Dinosaur Summer – Greg Bear

The Dechronization of Sam Magruder – George Gaylord Simpson

Emperor Mage, third in the Immortals series by Tamora Pierce (isn’t ABOUT dinos but HAS dinos if you wanna be way less literal about this whole thing and also Tamora Pierce is so great)

 

Adult persons

Oh man, I though I was going to be short-changed with my grown-up-type dinovember reads, because all I could think of was Jurassic Park, but the dinosaur riches are an embarrassment. You got you some:

Non-fiction: My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs – Brian Switek (on my nightstand rn and I am learning so much)

Classic Lit: The Lost World – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Romance: Love in the Age of Dinosaurs – Sorcha Lang

Noir: The Dinosaur Feather – S J Gazan, trans. Charlotte Barslund

Western: The Dinosaur Hunter – Homer Hickman

Medieval knights riding dinosaurs like they (the dinosaurs) are horses: The Dinosaur Lords – Victor Milán (I am beyond excited about this)

ALSO DINOSAUR EROTICA IS A THING THAT EXISTS I DON’T KNOW YOU OR YOUR LIFE MAYBE YOU’RE INTO IT ANYWAY JUST LEAVING THE WORDS TAKEN BY THE T-REX HERE AND RUNNING AWAY BYEEEEE.

t rex trying to hold handsI just…I don’t understand the mechanics. (Source)

What are your favorite prehistoric reads?

 

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