Guidance: Recommended Dinosaur Books for Children
What are the best dinosaur topic books for schools and classrooms?
Our dinosaur booklist for EYFS features the perfect books for your next primary school dinosaur topic. From fictional stories about dinosaurs like the favourite Katie and the Dinosaurs, dinosaur picturebooks including Never Show a T-Rex a Book and dinosaur poems including the colouring rhyming romp Mad About Dinosaurs by Giles Andreae.
Children looking to get their heads around the pure size and scale of prehistoric beasts should try Sophy Henn’s Lifesize Dinosaurs.
The BooksforTopics Dinosaur Booklist has everything you need to make your Dinosaur topic a roaring success! Schools can buy full packs of the books via Peters.
What are the most popular dinosaur books for EYFS children (ages 3-5)?
Children in the Early Years love the short rhyming poems in Mad About Dinosaurs – a classic preschool and reception choice that is ideal for young children to join in with. We also highly recommend Julia Donaldson’s charming rhyming story Tyrannosaurus Drip and Never Let a Diplodocus Draw for fun dino-themed storytimes in EYFS.
For children who can relate to playing with toy dinosaurs, Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs and My Small World: Dinosaurs are popular choices that will no doubt inspire hours of more creative and small-world play.
Which dinosaur books are best for gentle storytimes or bedtime stories?
The Girl and the Dinosaur is a storybook with a beautiful, lyrical feel to it and features a magical bedtime journey.
Parents and teachers looking for a gentle dino-themed readaloud also love Rachel Bright’s The Hugasaurus – with rhyming words and sweet illustrations, this book is perfect for opening up gentle conversations about kindness and friendship among young children.
Which dinosaur stories are best for children in Key Stage 1 (ages 5-7)?
Our top recommendation is Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs – a super-popular picturebook that combines pirates, dinosaurs and plenty of action! This book also features on our Best Books for Year 2 recommended booklist.
Another top choice of dinosaur story for 5-7-year-olds is Katie and the Dinosaurs, which sees the classic favourite character Katie step back in time and encounter a world of different dinosaurs via a trip to the Natural History Museum.
A super non-fiction option for this age group is My Encyclopedia of Very Important Dinosaurs which is part of a highly recommended series of comprehensive encyclopedia books suitable for young children.
Can you recommend any dinosaur stories for older readers?
Yes! Although our dinosaur booklist is aimed at younger children (ages 3-7), we can share a few book recommendations for older dino fans too. Julia Donaldson’s The Dinosaur’s Diary is a popular choice for readers looking for a short and accessible chapter book. Similarly, the colour-illustrated Rex: Dinosaur in Disguise is an entertaining story suitable for readers in the 7-9 age bracket.
Older readers ready for more complex chapter books might enjoy the Dinosaur Cove series, the popular Astrosaurs books or Pooja Puri’s super-funny A Dinosaur Ate My Sister.
A smashing non-fiction choice for dino-loving older readers is the super-detailed Atlas of Dinosaur Adventures – a brilliant gift to delight dinosaur lovers.
Which other booklists for EYFS are available?
Our popular 50 Recommended Read booklists are available for each primary year group, including Best Books for Preschool and Best Books for Reception.
If you are looking for more picturebooks that young children will love listening to over and over again, our EYFS Storytime Favourites list will help you to build a quality story collection for children aged 3 to 5. If you are looking to diversify your reading collection with diverse books for Early Years children, we’ve put together an additional special collection of Diverse and Inclusive Books for EYFS, which has been specially curated to help schools and parents to select more diverse books for young children.
We know how big the step of preparing to start primary school for the first time can feel to some children, and to help preschoolers to prepare for their journey to Reception, we’ve also put together a list of children’s books about starting school.
Many preschool and nursery children become fans of the most popular picturebook characters like Supertato and the Gruffalo, and to help with inspiration to find even more story characters to love, parents and teachers might find our Branching Out booklists useful with Books for Fans of Julia Donaldson and Books for Fans of Supertato.
Be sure to check out our EYFS topic booklists if you are looking for children’s books themed around a particular topic, like Colours or Festivals. Here are a few popular favourites you might also like:
Where can I purchase the books on the BooksForTopics dinosaur booklist?
