The Reading Nook | Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson + David Roberts
by Sandra Harris, posted on June 28th, 2012 in home, The Reading Nook
Do your littles have any books that you enjoy reading to them just as much as they enjoy hearing them? I do. Isn’t that such a pleasure for you and for them? Put aside your tv character readers and pick up one of my favorites – Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson and David Roberts. It’s the rhyming for me. I can read this one over and over and never tire of it.
Did you know that rhyming is one of the most important skills for reading readiness? Think about it – first a cat is a fuzzy animal to play with. Then, through rhyming, a cat becomes a sound to play with. Bat, rat, mat. Your littles begin to make the connection between the sound of a word and how it’s written. But that’s for you – all they will know is that it’s a fun book.
Here’s a taste of the delicious rhythm and rhyme:
Now across the rushy river, on a hill the other side,
Lived a mean Tyrannosaurus with his grim and grisly bride.
And they shouted, “Up with hunting!” and they shouted, “Up with war!”
And they shouted, “Up with bellyfuls of duckbill dinosaur!”
It’s dinosaur vs. dinosaur – toothy carnivores are up against the trumpet-mouthed vegetarians who hoot, “Up with bellyfuls of juicy water weeds!” Can you imagine what happens when the “grim and grisly” tyrannosaurus mommy hatches two tyrannosaurus babies plus a pond weed loving vegetarian dinosaur? Think a t-rex version of the Ugly Duckling.
Julia Donaldson is one of the UK’s most beloved children’s book authors (she also wrote The Gruffalo). She comes by her rhyming ability honestly as she and her husband Malcolm started out as buskers before they had kids. Busking led to a career in singing and songwriting for children’s television. Donaldson still performs and reads to kids as often as she can.
When you are a duck-billed dinosaur named Tyrannosaurus Drip, you have to be pretty clever to outwit a Tyrannosaurus Rex. It’s the ultimate underdog adventure and I won’t give away how he does it!
