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Publisher: Thames & Hudson

Picturebook

A little girl dreams of having her very own pet. But what kind of animal would make the best companion? A mouse is too small; a cat is too ordinary; and a fish is too… wet! As she plays with her toy dinosaur, inspiration strikes. What about a real, live dinosaur? She could ride it to school. It would need lots of food to eat, a swimming pool to drink from, and a dino flap so it could come and go. At the end of a day spent busily imagining, the girl trudges up to bed with her little plastic dinosaur. As she falls asleep, the dinosaur from her daydreams stands in the garden with its head poking through the bedroom window, making her dreams come true.

Picturebook

Tony T-Rex’s Family Album is a humorous history of dinosaurs as told by Earth’s last surviving dinosaur, Tony. Tony pens a no-holds-barred family history, and the stories that surface reveal the defining characteristics of some of the most memorable creatures from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Tony’s memoir includes tales about his great-great-great-grandpa `Greedy Guts’ Bill, the Brachiosaurus who was known to eat stones to help with indigestion, and beak-mouthed Aunt Norni the Sinornithosaurus, the first female dinosaur ever to achieve flight. It also presents the family’s blackest sheep – a Ceratosaurus called Horace `The Horn’ who, in a time of great scarcity and hunger, took a bite out of one his hunting buddies and pursued a lifestyle of cannibalism.

Featuring the quirky illustrations of Rob Hodgson, Tony T-Rex’s Family Album stands apart from the numerous dinosaur books on the market for its characterful creatures and humorous approach to palaeontology. It is the first in a series that brings archaeology alive for young children.

Non-fiction

This book opens with introductory spreads explaining that beasts are wild animals that can’t be tamed and gives tips on how to spot them in their natural habitats. Subsequent spreads, illustrated with scenic compositions, are dedicated to specific beasts, including armadillos, bears, tigers and the Tasmanian Devil. Later spreads approach the world of beasts thematically, looking at mythical beasts, Ice-Age beasts, beasts on your street and how to save beasts in danger. The text is chatty, funny and full of amazing facts.

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