What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night

What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night
by Refe and Susan Tuma

Strange things are happening all over the world. By night, plastic dinosaurs are creeping out of their toy boxes, shaking off their polite demeanors, and getting up to mischief.

No one knows how long this has been going on, but in 2012 Refe and Susan Tuma first noticed and started documenting online the shenanigans that their herd of plastic dinos were getting up to. By the autumn of 2013, reports were coming in from all over the world. Dinovember had arrived and cheeky plastic dinos were taking the world by storm.

By the 2014 launch of Refe and Susan Tuma's What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night, children all over the world were waking up each day in November to see what mischief had been wrought during the night. Facebook feeds and Pinterest boards were deluged with dinotastic destruction. One couldn't go on social media without seeing a T. rex stealing Halloween candy, a diplodicus devastating a birthday cake, or a triceratops tangled up in toilet paper, all aggregated under the tag #Dinovember.

What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night is an excellent way to bring a bit of wonder, mystery, and joy to your child during the late autumn. This book will give you lots of inspiration for what your herd of naughty raptors can get up to next November.

What the Dinosaurs Did Last Night
by Refe and Susan Tuma

I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean

I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean

by Kevin Sherry

The giant squid is big. Very big.

She's very proud of how big she is. She even thinks that she's the biggest thing in the ocean - bigger than shrimp, clams, and crabs. Even bigger than jellyfish, turtles, and octopodes.

But she's forgotten that everything has to eat and that even giant squid have predators. Along comes a sperm whale and gobbles her up. Now worries though, optimist that she is, the squid realizes that she's the biggest thing in the whale!

Kevin Sherry's delightfully playful I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean is a delightful read. The pictures are cute and they're even anatomically correct (no eyes on these clams). Packed with humor, this is a fantastic board book for your toddler (or your favorite marine biologist) to explore beautiful art and relative sizes.

I'm the Biggest Thing in the Ocean
by Kevin Sherry

Teeth, Tails, and Tentacles

Teeth, Tails, & Tentacles - An Animal Counting Book

by Christopher Wormell

1 rhinoceros horn, 2 camel humps, 3 chameleon colors, 4 giraffe legs, 5 starfish arms, 6 frog eyes, 7 black spots on a ladybug... Christopher Wormell's gorgeously detailed Teeth, Tails, & Tentacles - An Animal Counting Book helps the reader count from one through twenty - each page featuring a different animal part (including 16 catfish whiskers and 19 crocodile teeth).

Each image is a gorgeously rendered wood print with a pleasing mix of Warhol's pop art style and incredible attention to detail. Teeth, Tails, & Tentacles concludes with a brief discussion of the natural history of each of the animals in the book.

This is an excellent book to help a young person learn their numbers, appreciate excellent art, and develop an interest in the animals that fill the natural world.


Teeth, Tails, & Tentacles - An Animal Counting Book, by Christopher Wormell

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas

by Lynne Cox, illustrated by Brian Floca

Long distance, open water swimmer Lynne Cox visited New Zealand in 1983. While walking along the Avon river in Christchurch, a boy named Michael and his sister Maggie asked her if she was looking for Elizabeth. Lynne spent the rest of the day talking with them about the famous elephant seal (sea elephant as the kiwis call them) that lived in the river and had been named in honor of the Queen of England

It turns out that having a 2,000 pound mammal residing in your city can be a bit of a challenge to public safety, especially when they like to lie in the middle of nice warm roads. The New Zealand wildlife managers decided to relocate her to a nearby elephant seal colony.

To everyone's amazement, she returned to the banks of the Avon again and again. The people of Christchurch became so attached to Elizabeth that the city decided that it was better to adjust the behavior of people to Elizabeth's presence than to try to make her change her behavior.

Lynne Cox' new book Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas tells the lovely story of Elizabeth and Michael's ongoing friendship (sadly, Maggie is left out of the story). Each time Elizabeth is taken away, Michael longs to see her again and every time she returns, they are delighted to be reunited. Brian Floca's lovingly realistic illustrations bring the story to life. My son particularly delighted in the image of Elizabeth tossing huge clumps of mud onto her back.

On the final page of Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas, there is a brief discussion of the natural history of elephant seals, describing their eating habits, life cycle, habitat, etc. This sweet story is a definite keeper for anyone interested in fostering a love of the natural world and encouraging people to find a way to live in harmony with the world around us.

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas, by Lynne Cox, illustrated by Brian Floca