About the Author

Jane Yolen is the beloved author of more than 365 books for children and adults, including award-winning picture books, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. In addition to two Nebula Awards and a National Book Award nomination, she has received a Golden Kite from SCBWI, three Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, and the California Young Reader Medal. Yolen's How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? was an ALA Notable Book and a Christopher Medal winner. The book has gone on to become a widely popular bestselling series. She lives in Western Massachusetts.
Mark Teague is the international bestselling illustrator (and author) of more than 50 books for children. His numerous awards and honors include the Book Sense Book of the Year Award and the Christopher Medal. He has illustrated the widely successful How Do Dinosaurs...? series. He is the author of the popular Dear Mrs. LaRue, Firehouse!, and Jack and the Beanstalk and the French Fries. He lives in New York State.

Reviews

Set to a lilting bedtime beat, this rollicking rumpus of a tale ups the humor ante in a familiar scenario by substituting dinosaurs for children: "How does a dinosaur say good night when Papa comes in to turn off the light?" In a series of snappy lines, Yolen (Off We Go!, reviewed above; Queen's Own Fool, reviewed below) highlights a variety of postponement antics, some familiar (moping, sulking and demanding "one book more!"), some of a distinctly dinosaur variety--"Does a dinosaur slam his tail and pout? Does he throw his teddy bear all about?" Teague makes hay with the text, and as always his illustrations are a flurry of sly madcap inspiration. He chooses the winged Pteranodon (spelled out in ABC blocks on the bedroom floor) as the character who throws his teddy bear while flying about the room; for "Does he swing his neck from side to side" it's the snake-headed Apatosaurus who does the swinging. Under his sure direction, the sight gag never grows stale, and the sight of a T-Rex puckering up for a kiss, or an enormous Stegosaurus crammed into a tiny bed and daintily turning off the light switch with the tip of his tail, is sure to elicit giggles. As the endpapers reveal, there's a cast of 10 dinosaurs featured here, and sharp eyes will enjoy spotting their proper names tucked into each illustration. This rib-tickling bedtime fare packs plenty of appeal. Ages 2-up. (Apr.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

PreS-Gr 1-Jane Yolen's fantasy bedtime poem (Scholastic, 2000) about how dinosaurs behave when getting ready to go to bed is even more delightful as a video than as a book. It has been transformed by the addition of animation and additional scenes of young children turning into monstrous dinosaurs when their parents say that it is bedtime. While in the book version a human father, and later a human mother, talk to their dinosaur offspring, in the video viewers see the human children-which never appear in the book-become dinosaurs as they resist going to bed. The color and animation are absolutely superb and capture perfectly the intense colors of Mark Teague's original illustrations. There are ten accurately detailed dinosaurs used and identified in the story. Each one eventually becomes a cuddly child. Yolen narrates the video, bringing to this simple poem a veteran parent's understanding of the nightly delaying actions of so many young children. While it can be used as a teaching tool on proper bedtime behavior and attitudes, children will simply relate to the humorous, childlike behavior of the various dinosaurs. How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? will become a family and classroom classic.-Linda Skeele, Western Elementary School, Georgetown, KY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.