How to Raise a Dinosaur by Natasha Wing

How to Raise a Dinosaur by Natasha Wing, illustrated by Pablo Bernasconi

Rating: 3.5 stars

I am pretty confident that my nieces will like this one!  This new book is funny and unique, with slightly messy illustrations to match a slightly silly idea: a dinosaur as a pet?!  The idea so preposterous and crazy and fun that, for imaginative little kids, they are sure to be taking care of their (hopefully) imaginary dinosaurs within an hour of reading this book.

What makes the book just a little extra fun and extra different is the lift-the-flaps pages.  Not just ordinary lifting of flaps, but a tiny book within a book and other little surprises that Lorelei loved finding and opening when reading this (carefully, because it's a birthday book) with Grammy the day it arrived in the mail.

I'm not sure if this is a book that is fun to read after two or three dozen reads...would the flaps maybe get old or, like in our house, ripped off and um, eaten?  There's not a huge point to the story--not that all great books require one--and once the idea of having a dinosaur as a pet wears thin, it might gather a bit of dust. We'll experiment on my nieces and see how long this book engages them!