DINOSAUR, DINOSAUR, SAY GOOD NIGHT AND OTHER BEDTIME RHYMES

Nursery favorites “Humpty Dumpty,” “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” and more are rewritten with dino roars and stomps.

This board book is a straightforward compilation of nursery rhymes and songs. While many will be familiar after a few lines, since many are renamed to suit the dinosaur theme, readers may sometimes find themselves muddling through pacing, tune, and rhythm until they catch on. Some changes are as simple as editing a single word. In “Rock-a-bye Dino,” all of the instances of the word “baby” are changed to “dino”—nothing more. Others, such as “Five Little Dinosaurs,” a take on “Five Little Pumpkins,” are more elaborately reimagined. “Star Light, Star Bright” is the only included rhyme with no edits; accompanying it is a picture of a young regaliceratops clutching a teddy bear and looking out the window at the titular star. Overall, Rešček’s illustrations are sweet and suitable to a bedtime book for little ones. The images include enough details to engage readers with thoughtful touches, such as a bird gently laying a leaf as a blanket across a sleepy dinosaur. The colors are bright and child-friendly, and the dinosaurs are all endearing, with perky noses and expressive eyes. With a gift plate printed into the front endpaper, it’s clear that this is designed to be a gift to a family for a new baby. It’s a nice take on the standard book of lullabies even if the rewrites sometimes make for slightly awkward read-alouds.

Nice-enough bedtime fare for toddler dinophiles.