How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? by Jane Yolen

I was stumped as to what book to share this week. My usual posting day, Wednesday, passed me by yesterday without my realizing that I'd missed a Nook day. Today I still couldn't decide what to share, so I asked the expert...my one year old. Not surprisingly, he went to his favorites, his How Do Dinosaurs books, and brought me this one, which was the first one he ever received. He was given it as a first birthday gift from his Grandma Hootie, Grandpa, Uncle Storm and Aunt Harmony...and thus a monster...er...dinosaur was born.

How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food? follows the tradition of it's literary siblings, teaching children good and proper behavior by showing how silly dinosaurs are when behaving badly. I don;t know if I am ashamed or amused (or perhaps a little of both) to admit that my son has done almost all of the bad things these dinosaurs do in this book. On the other hand, what parent hasn't spent an evening bath carefully removing spaghetti from their child's hair? Am I the only one who has cleaned up half chewed food from a high chair or stopped my son from sticking beans up his nose? Is there a parent out there that hasn't played the I-Throw-It-On-The-Floor-And-Mommy-Picks-It-Up game with their toddlers plate or cup?

As with the other dinosaur books, (including How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?, How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon?, and How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends?) author Jane Yolen uses creative and catchy rhyme to ask how dinosaurs should behave. Should they throw their food or bubble their milk? Of course not, and children know the answers to that as well as adults do. It will make them laugh and giggle to think of naughty dinosaurs doing the exact things they aren't aloud to do either...and of course, just like the dinosaurs, they will be able to identify the positive behavior from the bad. 

As with all the other dinosaur books, one of my favorite things about the illustrations by the talented Mark Teague is the creative use of the dinosaurs name in each illustration. After all, most children will ask "Mommy, what is that dinosaur called?" and if you are anything like me you only know a handful of dinosaur names...and not all winged dinosaurs are teradactyl. (In fact, "teradactyl" is apparently an old school term. I feel old.)

See how the dinosaur's name is spelled on the fridge? And yes, this book has been translated into numerous languages. I don't know what that one is...

 As withe the other books in this series that I have shared, I can not recommend this book enough! We love, love, love the How Do Dinosaur books in this house! Add them to your own Nook. I gurantee you won't regret it!

If you are interested in learning more about Jane Yolen, her How Do Dinosaurs series, or any of the other over 300 books she has written, please check out her web page! If you would like to know more about author and illustrator, Mark Teague, you can look him up online for some great information!

Happy Reading!