Dinosaur Dances

by Jane Yolen

Seventeen whimsical poems featuring allosaurus, stegosaurus, tyrannosaurus, and other dancing dinosaurs.

Genres: Poetry, Picture Books, Animals, Nonfiction, Childrens, Dinosaurs

Paperback

First published September 27, 1990

About the author

Jane Yolen is a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children’s book author who has written more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Born and raised in New York City, the mother of three and the grandmother of six, Yolen lives in Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

The poems in this book are fun and clever, however my little kids didn’t enjoy it. They can’t follow the text but did like the illustrations.

[Shane Moore · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was not a fan of this. The poetry itself wasn't really to my tastes, and there was more than a little bit of content that didn't age well.

[Jazmine Shoup · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dinosaur Dances by Jane Yolen is a children’s poetry picture book. The book is cleverly written in that it creates poetry about dancing dinosaurs. Each poem focused on different types or aspects of dinosaurs, as well as a different type of dance. As examples, the book has poems about dinosaurs that do the hula, waltz, a kick line, square dancing, disco, and many other creatively written poems about dancing. The book uses the proper names of the dinosaurs and vibrantly illustrated pictures to correspond with all of the different types of dinosaurs. There is not a single character that is present throughout the entire poetry book, but the different types of dinosaurs take on their characters in each of the individual poems.
The illustrations throughout are also great! They are energetically created with life and spunk. All of the dinosaurs have personalities that match their illustrations, and take on a life of their own in each of the poems. Along with each of the dinosaurs that were created, the background and backdrops of the illustrations were also brightly colored and intricately drawn to emphasize the life of the poem and the dinosaur in the poem.
I would use this book for two separate purposes: to teach a lesson about dinosaurs, and also to teach a lesson about poetry. I think that this book would be appropriate for third grade students. I would use the book to illustrate the creative, yet structured nature of poetry. I would also use each of the poems about the different dinosaurs to teach about all of the different species of dinosaurs that there are. I think that this would be a fun lesson to incorporate literature and science/history together. The different species could represent a scientific aspect and the history of dinosaurs could represent a historical one. Overall, I really enjoyed this poetry book and thought that it would be a fun and exciting piece of literature for elementary aged children.

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just realized that this is written by the How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight author. I loved, loved, loved that book and my daughter does also. This, not so much.
Some of the poems are pretty cool and others just really fall flat to me. The first poem, "Dinosaur Dances" is good. I didn't like the second, "Ms. A Hulas" although Julia seemed to like it well enough. "Tyrannosaurus" has a few words that I doubt the average toddler knows but it's still okay. "Improper Moves" was awful is you ask me and Julia agreed. Same with "Kick Line" - neither of us liked it. We both liked "Dinosaur Waltz", "Partners", "Dress Code", and "Disco Dino Dancing". "Wallflower" was by far the worst - both of us agreed on this totally.
I haven't mentioned them all - I just went through and pulled the ones that stood out in our minds.
I will say this, even though we weren't thrilled overall with this, How Do Dinosaurs is so awesome I'd still get another dinosaur book by Yolen anytime.

[Paul Hankins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before her newest dinosaur series, Jane wrote this collection of poems. You can still find copies of this 1990 release with Jane turning loose and having fun with form and word choice. Dinosaur names invite us to alliteration and adding dance styles ups the ante for poetic technique that is workshop accessible and ready for sharing.

Bruce Degan's illustation of dinosaurs doing the tango, the waltz, or even disco dancing will be sure to delight younger readers.

[Katy Pitrucha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dinosaur inspired poems, showing dinosaurs dancing various styles of dance.

[Damon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and light-footed, in spite of their heavy repuations, these guys really knew how to have fun. Old book--(c) 1990--but timeless entertainment.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of poetry all about dancing dinosaurs. Hilarious. Cute. Fun for all ages.