Genre
Canadian fiction
Humorous stories
Picture books for children
Tone
Amusing
Illustration
Cartoony
Subject
Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs as pets
Family and household chores
Helpfulness
Kites

This reminds me of the "If you give a blank a blank" books because it starts with a main idea and keeps building off of it. The illustrations make this book really fun and if I was reading this out loud I would probably have to go slow and give the kids time to enjoy the pictures. Dinosaurs are a great subject for kids books because there's so much variety and possibility in discussing them. ( )

I guess that a good review should be written by a member of the target readership—since this is a board book, that would be a challenge, however, I have the next best thing.
I have three little grandsons; two are very excited about dinosaurs and one that is more of a truck, trains & tractor kind of guy. On the day I received my copy of “What Would You Do with a Dinosaur?”, my triple-t grandson (age 3) was at the house. I opened the package and asked him if he would like to look at it. He paged through it and asked me to read it, so, of course, I did. Then I read it again; and again and yet again. Actually, I read it eight times in a row. The first couple of readings he simply listened to it—the next few readings were sprinkled with tentative questions (Do dinosaurs really do that? Are there dinosaurs around here? What is he doing in that picture?). By the time we had finished the eighth reading , he was laughing and examining the pictures very carefully. At nap time, he wanted to sleep with the book and after the nap we did some more cluster readings, but this time he added ideas as I read: I could ride a dinosaur—I could play hide & go seek with a dinosaur—do not let a dinosaur carry your milk to the table. Then he cut loose and got pretty silly: do not teach your dinosaur to dance because he will break the floor. Make the dinosaur use his indoor voice or he will wake the baby. Do not run races with a dinosaur because he could step on your toes.
I asked him, “Do you like dinosaurs now?”
“No,” he said very seriously, “but I like your book.”
So the three-year-old enjoyed the book and I saw a new side of this very concrete little kid.
The book is short and silly—it covers the dos & don’ts of dinosaur ownership in a humorous way and the artwork is fun for both the little people listening and the big ones reading to them. This is a fun book that is a great jumping off point for creative conversations and giggles.

If You Happen to Have a Dinosaur was an adorable book full of silly witty comedy that my youngsters enjoyed on every page. They had so much fun identifying the dinosaurs and all of the things those dinosaurs would be useful for around the house and as pets. The quality and hard cardboard pages made it durable enough for my youngest 2 year old boy and yet the story was still fun enough to enjoy for my 5 year old.

I highly recommend it! ( )

This is a silly book about the different things you can do with a dinosaur, like use it as a can opener, an umbrella, or a kite. It's a cute story, but my toddler was not very interested in it even though he loves dinosaurs. I think maybe he didn't like the illustrations, though other kids might like them a lot. ( )