Dinosaur Dig is a great first counting book for any child obsessed with dinosaurs and transport. It introduces ten different kinds of dinosaur and ten different types of heavy duty machinery (all the dinosaurs and vehicles are labelled at the beginning and end of the book) and puts a heavy emphasis on dirt! The pictures are wonderful with very realistic (not scary at all!) looking dinosaurs and the text includes a lovely range of noisy words (crash, scrape, clatter). The story unfolds with the introduction of each new dinosaur and concludes with a surprise ending.
The Story: One dinosaur in a digger starts to dig a hole and then he is joined by the next dinosaur. Each page brings another dinosaur in a vehicle to dig or build or roll or mix cement. At the end of the book ten dinosaurs sit patiently and wait for everything to dry before having some ‘splashy’ fun (I won’t spoil the surprise!).
Quote from Jessica age four: “I like dinosaurs more than Disney Princesses now.”!
Age Range: 2 +
Author / Illustrator: Penny Dale
We have also listened to the ‘Dinosaur Dig’ podcast by the publisher of the book, Nosy Crow, and read ‘Dino-Brummer und die coole Baustelle’ (the German translation of the story). There is another book ‘Dinosaur Zoom’ which we haven’t yet read but we do like Penny Dale’s ‘Ten in the Bed’ and ‘Ten Out of Bed’ which are based on the ten in a bed song.
You can download PDF posters of the dinosaurs and their vehicles from Dinosaur Dig and Dinosaur Zoom from the Nosy Crow website.
ReaditDaddy also recommends Princess Fairy by Penny Dale on his blog.
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