Dinosaur Rescue!

by Penny Dale

There’s an emergency! Call the fire engines, ambulances, police cars — and the dinosaurs, of course!

All of your favorite dinosaurs from Dinosaur Dig! and Dinosaur Zoom! are back, but this time they are busy saving the day! Children will be enthralled by the wonderful illustrations as the dinosaurs rescue one another. But don’t worry, there’s a happy ending for everyone!

Genres: Picture Books, Dinosaurs, Childrens, Storytime, Fiction, Transport, Trucks

32 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 2013

About the author

Penny Dale was born in Abbey Road near The Beatles' Studio, but grew up in Ottery St Mary. Her first school was so small that all the children were in one classroom, and even that wasn't full. She drew and made things all the time and her dad showed her how to use a hammer properly, something she's still proud of. She made plasticine models of everything she could think of. When Penny was very small, she found her parents' folios from a time when they both went to life drawing classes in London. She remembers being immensely impressed by their drawing, and even though she was very young, she knew she wanted to draw like that one day. At her junior school she was encouraged to draw pictures to complement written work, and this she loved, though this was not encouraged later on at secondary school, which she found disappointing. However, she still managed to illustrate work in some subjects, like Science (lively diagrams), Geography (coloured-in maps) and even made a lift-the-flap Norman Castle in History.

After secondary school, Penny took a Foundation Course at Bristol, then took a gap year to work with the Arts Workshop in Bath, making props and costumes, acting, and counting the takings on foreign tours. Later she did a Fine Art Degree at Exeter, where she met her husband Bryan. After college she began working for a time at the Northcott Theatre, designing and making costumes and props again, before she and her husband moved to Northumberland to work on renewable energy projects and graphic design. Their daughter Sarah was born in Hexham, and a friendship developed with an artist she met at childbirth classes, which led to shared daughter-minding, making time for painting, drawing and print making. A year later Penny moved down to South Wales, where Bryan took up a lecturing post in design. It was there that she started to write and illustrate children's books.


Today Penny is one of the UK's leading illustrators of children's books. Her books have met with great success: BET YOU CAN'T and ONCE THERE WERE GIANTS were included in the UK SATS booklist for many years. WAKE UP MR B! was commended for the Kate Greenaway Medal 1988. ROSIE'S BABIES (written by Martin Waddell) won the Best Book for Babies award and was also shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1990. NIGHT NIGHT CUDDLY BEAR (also written by Martin Waddell) and TEN IN THE BED both won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award in 2001 and 2002 respectively. JAMIE AND ANGUS (written by Anne Fine) won the BOSTON GLOBE-HORN BOOK Award in 2003. Penny has sold over three million books worldwide and has been published in over twenty languages. Her most recent work includes PRINCESS, PRINCESS, as well as THE BOY ON THE BUS and JAMIE AND ANGUS TOGETHER.

Reviews

[Jason Koivu · Rating 3 out of 5]

* * * Read & reviewed with my niece Emma * * *

When Emma first started reading Dinosaur Rescue to me I thought she was f'ing up a lot. Then I looked over her shoulder and realized this is written in free verse. Taken individually, the sentences don't make grammatical sense and Emma was stumbling over them. Once I figured out what was going on I suggested we sing the book together and that's when reading-time soared!

What our duet lacked in tonal quality we made up for in volume. Each little scene in which the "rescue" dinosaurs get themselves deeper into the doo-doo --Car crashes right on the railroad tracks? Come on dinos, get your sh*t together!-- ends with noises like "Choo! Choo! Choo!" and those were fun as heck to belt out.

The illustrations are pretty good. The story itself is a little weak. I'm not sure we would've enjoyed this half as much as we did if we hadn't turned it into a singalong.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not the easiest story to read to little ones, however my son loved the pictures.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh, Dinosaur Rescue! what would Louie do without you each night? It will be a sad day for the little guy when this has to go back to the library.

[Marya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was a huge hit with the target demographic, as I ended up reading this at least 10 times over the course of the weekend. Unfortunately, my adult brain found many problems with the story. Three dinosaurs crash their pickup on the railroad tracks - they actually crash into the railroad crossing flashing lights sign- causing their front tire to go flat and the engine to start smoking. And then they stay by the car. Seriously? Right up until when the train is mere feet from their car, those crazy dinosaurs are waving the bags of whatever they have loaded in the pickup at the train to get it to stop (I guess they didn't have a red flag on hand). They even leave the littlest dinosaur in the back as two other dinosaurs try to push it off the tracks. And the driver of the steam engine does no better. Despite being told well in advance by the police car (which is apparently a British model as the steering wheel is on the right), the train doesn't start braking until right as it is approaching the truck. Bad behavior from all dinosaurs who are not rescue dinosaurs. Somebody should loose their license over this!

[Brina Armentrout · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a picture book and is children ages 2-5 years old. This book is about dinosaurs who work together to solve a problem. There is a train coming and a truck is stuck on the tracks so they cal help and move the truck safely from the tracks, they warn the train and no one ends up hurt. All of the dinosaurs are safe at the end and are ready for another day to help. I rated the book as I really like it because it had very detailed and colorful pictures that helped explain what was going happening on each page. It had different sounds on each page that related to the vehicle for example the fire truck or ambulance they had "wee-ooh", for the helicopter they had "choppa". This helps the child understand the noises that these vehicles make. I believe this book would be very appealing to young readers and help them stay focused and understand the story. I would use this book when working with children to show how these dinosaurs all work together to help others stay safe and how they use multiple different options to safely help the train not crash into the truck.

[Cecelia Winger · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book grinds my gears...I think it would be a totally normal children's book except for the fact that it is SO repetitive. For example, the last word of every sentence is then written AGAIN as the first word of the following sentence..."Rescue dinosaurs rushing. Rushing to get there in time. To get there in time, before it's too late!" "Police dinosaurs racing. Racing to warn the train. The train that is heading for trouble!" This is how literally every single page of the book is written.

Anyways, it's a very basic story about dinosaurs rescuing other dinosaurs from an impending train accident. The only redeeming factor is that the illustrations are pretty good. Obviously, I am not the target audience for this book so I may be rating it harshly, although I will say I do read a lot of children's books these days due to being a toddler mom, and this one is just...annoying. My 3 year old son happens to love this book (he loved it since he was 2). I groan in my head every time he requests it.

[Suzanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The inside front cover of this book pictures and labels a variety of dinosaurs and the back cover pictures and labels vehicles found in the book. The prose is simple and full of sound words such as "choppa," "we-o," and "brrm." The prose has predictable words and plenty of repetition that makes it easy for children to participate even in the first reading and more so in subsequent readings. One thing that I didn't like about the book was that the lines on each page provided repetition that, although grammatically correct, did not flow smoothly for me. The story itself was about a dinosaur train chugging through town and encountering many emergency vehicles trying to warn it of a stopped truck on the tracks. Will it stop in time? The pages are full of heightened action and lend easily to shouted warnings that are sure to keep the attention and participation of a preschool class.

[Daniela · Rating 4 out of 5]

I choose this book to be paired with a nonfiction Dinosaur book. Name a single little boy that is not at one point of their life obsessed with Dinosaurs and this book is really cute. The dinosaurs are in trouble and they need help from other dinosaurs. this book does not just teach about what do to in a situation where you are in trouble but it also teaches teamwork. The language in this book is more geared to the younger reader probably not over Kindergarten. Because most of the sentences luck proper sentence structure. But the story is cute and it keeps the little dinosaur fan interested until the very end.

[Jenna Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having disliked the whole dinosaur and rocket combo on the last of this series that I read, I have actually come round to it a bit as my nearly 2yr old daughter loved it, and this one too. I still think it's a bit ridiculous as it's clear to see from the illustrations that they are physically incapable of doing most of the things the story has them doing!

[Tapani Aulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Triceratops, Allosaurus, Carnotaurus, Iguanodon, Ankylosaurus, Megalosaurus, Stegosaurus, Baryonyx, Styracosaurus ja Tyrannosaurus Rex ajavat kaikkia mahdollisia hälytysajoneuvoja. Niin, mikä sen parempaa.

[Rebecca Kurien · Rating 4 out of 5]

A hit during bedtime reading - it's short (win for mama), it's got detailed illustrations (win for curious child) , words like chugga chugga make for good early reading (win for both) and it's got dinosaurs AND vehicles (win for all little boys! )

[Kate M. Colby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grandie got this book for Jack and read it to him over FaceTime today. He loved the dinosaurs and the vehicles, especially the train. He kept saying choo choo train at the end. He seemed concerned over the danger and relieved when the dinos saved the day.

[Jude · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dinosaurs as EMTs, firefighters and police officers. Oh, and train conductors.

[Kristen Thorp · Rating 4 out of 5]

101/365

I almost didn't read this one because I didn't like the first one I picked up in this series. THis was cute.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice repetitive flow with fun, colorful art and an interesting choice of dinosaurs.

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for kids who like dinos and emergency vehicles
Active, lots of sound effects

[Haley Kilgour · Rating 4 out of 5]

What’s not to love about this! A great way to help kids explore what emergency services do with the aid of dinosaurs.

[Philippa · Rating 5 out of 5]

the illustrations are amazing! the kids loved the story.

[Jenna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dinosaurusten ja erilaisten koneiden suurelle ystävälle Dinojen pelastuspartio on kerrassaan täydellinen kirja! Tässä kirjassa kuorma-auto on ajanut vaarallisen kolarin tasoristeyksessä. Kerkeääkö dinojen pelastuspartio paikalle ennen kuin dinojuna ajaa kolarin kuorma-auton kanssa?

Hyvin kuvitettu kirja. Kummilapsi oli haltioissaan tarinasta, vaikka itse hieman aina vierastan näitä yhdistelmäkirjoja, joissa dinosaurukset ajelevat autoja ja asuvat ihmisten tavoin rakennuksissa..

[Lacey · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was cute. Illustrations were nice and it's a simple story.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another awesome book from Penny Dale, which of course my son loved, this one is all about rescue vehicles. A group of dinosaurs in a pickup truck have broken down on the train tracks. They call Dinosaur Rescue to help them. The police car tells the Engineer Dinosaur that there is a truck on the tracks up ahead and he needs to stop. Once the train finally does stop (just in time!), there is a fire truck to help put out the pickup fire, an ambulance to make sure they are okay and a helicopter helping to monitor the scene. At the end of the day, the rescue dinosaurs go back to their compound to rest and relax. Recommended for ages 3-6, 4 stars.

[Marilyn Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An orange pickup gets stuck on a railroad crossing. Dinosuars rush to the rescue. All kinds of dinosaurs in various vehicles are involved
in the rescue. At the end of the day the dinosaurs are shown relaxing and finally sleeping, getting ready for another busy day. The front endpages show a dislay of dinosaurs all labelled and the back ones feature the rescus vehicles. The illustrations are bright and colorful and gently add to the fun.

[Milo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Milo read this book many times the first day. It combined some of his favorite things: emergency vehicles, dinosaurs, trains, and danger!

"My favorite thing here [on this page] is the foam and the ding-ding gates." [The foam the firefighters spray on the wrecked car and the railroad crossing gates.]

Papa noticed a dinosaur reading a book showing a dinosaur in a digger. Turns out there is another book in the series called Dinosaur Dig!

[Stephanie Tournas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A truck gets stuck on the railroad tracks with a train barreling towards it. Dinosaurs in rescue vehicles - ambulance, fire truck, police cruiser, tow truck and rescue helicopter - rush to save the day. Detailed watercolor and pencil illustrations show colorful dinosaurs of all kinds performing all the rescue activities. Rhythmic text with lots of vehicle onomatopoeia to dramatize the action. Bound to please young dinosaur- and truck-lovers.

[Amy Allgeier · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dinosaurs, emergency vehicles, trains...what more could you ask for? I definitely think little ones will love this book especially because of the subject. There was definitely a lot going on the book and I didn't really feel like it flowed, but it could be okay for storytime and I did like the fact that it works on phonological awareness and print awareness.

[Peanut · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

MOMMY: 3 Stars for me. The repetition and simple story make for a great transition into Peanut "reading" it back to us fairly quickly. It's easy to read aloud and even better if you do sound effects.

PEANUT: 4 Stars for Peanut. He really liked this one. He's a big fan of dinosaurs lately and you mix it with fire trucks, trains, helicopters, etc and you have an instant winner!

[Jacinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

My child loves this series and who wouldn't!!! This book combine teaches kids about the different emergency vehicles and what needs to be done in an emergency using dinosaurs. It's not a rhyming book. What this book does is gives a child an understanding of what an emergency means by allowing the reader to use their voice to help explain the situation. I think it very clever

[The Brothers · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the story here is a bit thin, the illustrations more than make up for it. A train is racing toward a stuck truck on the tracks. (Why it can't stop or the dinosaurs just walk away from the truck is not addressed.) All sorts of rescue vehicles and dinosaurs band together to save the day.

Illustrations are detailed and colorful.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really excited about reading this book because it had both dinosaurs AND vehicles in it. It is a good book for ECE level readers who are interested in one or both of those things, but I felt that there was a little too much trying to happen in these few pages.

[Madison Bohman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was very cute. It is definitely geared towards younger readers, and it is written in a repetitive style to assist in reading cues. The illustrations are beautiful and detailed. Any parent with a child who has an interest in dinosaurs should read this book!