At some point, every teacher and every homeschooler will head to the library looking for dinosaur books. Maybe it’s because their kids have suddenly gone dinosaur crazy or maybe it’s because they’re covering a dinosaur unit. Either way, they need a dinosaur booklist, and they need it now. There are also about 2 million dinosaur books to be found. I’ve narrowed down this dinosaur booklist to a combination of nonfiction books, and fiction books imagining if dinosaurs came back.
That eliminated about 50 books, at least, of dinosaurs living like humans. That is the subject of another dinosaur booklist.
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Dinosaur fiction books
My fiction booklist is mostly fictional retellings of paleontologists, what if you suddenly had a dinosaur pet, and a few imagining what it would be like to live in dinosaur times.
- Bones, bones, dinosaur bones– a fun book about paleontologists searching for bones.
- The ugly duckling dinosaur– a retelling of the Ugly Duckling with dinosaurs. It’s cute, fun, and a great comparison to the classic tale.
- How to take care of your dinosaur– A thinly veiled look at caring for pets, but it’s fun to think about what would happen if we had pet dinosaurs.
- A dinosaur called Tiny– This would be a great book to pair with a nonfiction book to see how much of this is true (I’ll give you a hint, not a lot).
- The magic school bus in the time of the dinosaurs– I find it interesting these books are now in the fiction category. Also, Magic School Bus books are geared more for slightly older kids, and preschoolers won’t have the attention span to stay with the book.
- The dinosaur expert– This series wasn’t out when my kids were little, but it looks like a cool series.
- Time Flies– This is wordless, and the pictures are gorgeous.
- The most amazing dinosaur– I always like books that are from a different point of view, like the point of view of an animal in a museum.
- The field mouse and the dinosaur named Sue– Another mouse in a museum, and this one is in the Field Museum. I’ve got a soft spot for this museum because I went there on my one year anniversary with my husband.
- My Dinosaur– A cute story of a young girl who has a secret dinosaur pet
- Edwina, the dinosaur who didn’t know she was extinct– a Mo Willems book, which is always fun to read
- How to raise a dinosaur– I actually own a copy of this book, but it came up in my library list, which makes me so happy because this is an amazingly cute book
- How do Dinosaurs say good night?– Okay, this book doesn’t really fit any of my rules for this fiction list, but I have to admit I just love it so much I had a hard time not including it. Ages ago when this series was a Kohls Cares book, I bought all of them (or all that existed at the time) and a few of the stuffed animals
- Danny and the Dinosaur– I actually have an early elementary Danny and the Dinosaur lesson set…
- Big and small-hmmm… I don’t think this is actually the book I thought it was, darn
- The magic school bus flies with the dinosaurs– If you feel like the earlier Magic School Bus is too old for your kids, then the easy reader book will probably be just fine…
Nonfiction Dinosaur Booklist
It’s kind of amusing how many amazing nonfiction dinosaur books there are. I had to narrow down this book list to just a few that wouldn’t overwhelm kids.
Starting with an awesome book by Aliki…
- Digging Up Dinosaurs– I love Aliki’s books, they are awesome!
- Dinosaur Bones– This is bright and colorful and has just the right amount of information
- The dog that dug for dinosaurs: a true story– The whole idea of this story just makes me smile, especially since I can see my new puppy doing this
- Did dinosaurs have feathers?– This could be an interesting book to use with your slightly older kids to talk about how what we know about science changes
- Barnum Brown: dinosaur hunter– There’s something about this title that I find amusing, not sure what
More ideas for early learning
- 5 Senses Kindergarten activity
- Turtle picture books
- Me on the Map self-portrait
- How do trees grow botany lesson
- Creation story writing prompt
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