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Dinosaur Train
Physical 9.0"x9.0"x0.2"; 0.1 lb; 29 pages Edition 2003
29 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2002
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
January 8, 2024
A great read for those who love both dinosaurs and trains with a solid rhyming scheme. My four year old and I read this one twice.
October 6, 2025
DINOSAURS + TRAINS = FUNTASTIC TRIP! I am really surprised that more amusement parks have not considered this: a train ride through a 'dino-world' where animatronic dinos come out of the jungle towards you! I would be willing to bet it would be a pretty big draw - I know my twelve-year-old self would want to be there!
February 28, 2016
1st graders enjoyed this book. There are lots of details in the illustrations to generate discussion (dinosaurs wearing funny clothes, eating burgers, drinking sodas). Kids related to the story and anthropomorphic animals and had a lot to say about it (even though English is 2nd or 3rd language and speaking English requires a great deal of effort for them.) Kids loved the volcano, because they live next to three volcanoes.
Similar to /Where the Wild Things Are/ the main character creates creates an imaginary world and acts as the hero (or very important character) in this imaginary world (in /Dinosaur Train/, Jesse saves the day when the train goes off the track). One of my favorite wordless picture books /Chalk/ is a bit more complex here - the children's drawing comes to life but then this creates a problem and the children must work out how to fix the problem. In this story, Jesse's drawing comes to life and in his imaginary world he saves the day which is a slightly less interesting and more predicable day-dream. Nonetheless it's a fabulous donation to LIFE school 1st grade classroom.
Similar to /Where the Wild Things Are/ the main character creates creates an imaginary world and acts as the hero (or very important character) in this imaginary world (in /Dinosaur Train/, Jesse saves the day when the train goes off the track). One of my favorite wordless picture books /Chalk/ is a bit more complex here - the children's drawing comes to life but then this creates a problem and the children must work out how to fix the problem. In this story, Jesse's drawing comes to life and in his imaginary world he saves the day which is a slightly less interesting and more predicable day-dream. Nonetheless it's a fabulous donation to LIFE school 1st grade classroom.
May 6, 2009
Yes, the book is short on content, but there are few young boys who are not crazy about dinosaurs or trains--most probably, both. This is the fulfillment of that kind of boy's ultimate fantasy--being picked up from his own bedroom to ride on a train with dinosaurs. Love the front cover illustration of T-Rex inhaling the train smoke and blowing it out his nostrils.
March 17, 2019
Simple and fun. My 2 year loves this book.
March 12, 2010
Most of the time when I'm in the picture book and early readers section of the children's library, I am looking for books for my children. Sometimes though a book catches my attention. Dinosaur Train by Steven Gurney is one of those books.
Two years ago I read "Bread and Circus" by Steven Popkes. The plot centers on a coach of a dinosaur soccer team who travel to their venues on a train.
As it turns out Dinosaur Train has fantastic illustrations that bring to life the night time adventure of a boy, Jesse, who loves trains and dinosaurs. His two passions come together as a train pulls up outside his bedroom window. The dinosaurs invite him on board for a ride.
Harriet loved the book. She's a bit of a train fanatic so she had fun seeing Jesse ride with the dinosaurs big and small. It was nice that the appearance of the dinosaurs wasn't explained at the end, leaving it open for the chance of magic.
Two years ago I read "Bread and Circus" by Steven Popkes. The plot centers on a coach of a dinosaur soccer team who travel to their venues on a train.
As it turns out Dinosaur Train has fantastic illustrations that bring to life the night time adventure of a boy, Jesse, who loves trains and dinosaurs. His two passions come together as a train pulls up outside his bedroom window. The dinosaurs invite him on board for a ride.
Harriet loved the book. She's a bit of a train fanatic so she had fun seeing Jesse ride with the dinosaurs big and small. It was nice that the appearance of the dinosaurs wasn't explained at the end, leaving it open for the chance of magic.
April 15, 2013
Jesse is a young boy who loves nothing more than to play with dinosaurs and trains. One day, he is getting ready for bed when a train full of dinosaurs stops at his house to pick him up. When the train accidentally falls over, Jesse uses his skills of playing to help lead the group and solve the conflict. It a cute story to show that dreams can really come to life. The illustrations are filled with solid colors, and emphasis is put on the characters and objects rather than the background. The dinosaurs are comedic since they are given human characteristics such as clothing, glasses, nail polish, and mustaches. The dinosaurs are also specific to types that are known such as a T-Rex and triceratops. While some are eating salad on the train, others are eating hamburgers which would be a great connection to herbivores and carnivores. This is a great picture book to include as a fictional story with some references to scientific fact.
June 20, 2014
I think my son loves this book for the cover image alone. He kept going on and on about the giant feet and the T-Rex inhaling all the smoke. It is about a young boy named Jesse who really loved dinosaurs and trains (just like my son), and after drawing a picture of the two together, he gets invited on a real train operated by them. After exploring the train car by car, the whole train leans over to look at a volcano that Jesse has seen and it topples over. After helping to right the train, he gets to ride up front with the engineer and they head back to Jesse's room. Recommended for ages 3-7, 4 stars.
March 9, 2017
excellent combonation about trains and dinosaurs and imagination. this is an excellent book about a little boy, jesse, who loves trains and dinosaurs so much. one night, right before bed, his imagination takes him on a train ride with dinosaurs. it's jesse's dream come true!! excellent book for a train or dinosaur lover of all ages
February 26, 2014
This book starts out with how Jesse's usual day is "Trains and dinosaurs. Dinosaurs and trains" accompanied by illustrations of him playing with toy trains and dinosaurs and painting them and I had to say, I felt a very real pang of jealousy. Man, wish my days were all trains and dinosaurs, dinosaurs and trains...
September 14, 2016
No date finished on this book as I have to read it several times a day to my grandson, even though he has pretty much the whole book memorized ~ if you have a little one that loves dinosaurs or trains, this book fits the bill. Short but lots of different dinosaurs, easy read, very colorful. If the grandson loves it, a 5 star rating it is.
November 10, 2009
We've read two dinosaur train books now and this is the better of the two. Lots of action, good rhymes. Ages 3 and up.
August 21, 2017
If you are into trains and dinosaurs, this is the book for you! Nothing too special, but the combination of trains and dinosaurs in illustration provide some good amusement.
July 20, 2020
Can't go wrong with dinosaurs
March 1, 2018
An informal essay and primum scribere on; Dinosaur Train, a short story by John Steven Gurney
Was it 10 to 5 until the Dinosaur Train?
On the surface Dinosaur Train is a story of a child’s (Jesse) imagination. I dare you to think deeper, reading between the lines, and looking beyond the immediate landscape presented. We are given a hidden message, a foreboding warning de déjà vu.
We start on a Thursday, a Thursday evening much like any other for Jesse…
Trains and dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs and trains.
Just before bed Jess drew one last picture (dinosaurs on a train).
Jesse is carrying on like any Thursday, but for some strange reason it is not going to be like any past Thursday evening. This is obviously symbolic as dinosaurs and trains did not coexist in any point in history (at least not in their whole compositions). Dinosaurs, purportedly, ceased to exist tens of millions of years past, their ruin not certain but most likely a seemingly random event, a large rock traveling through space at great speed, brought to an abrupt halt by the earth’s atmosphere then surface. As the dinosaurs, and a great share of the earths organic mass, were consumed in fire, propelled skyward, buried by ash and left to decompose and break down through countless epoch, they were to leave behind the material for both people kind’s rise, and potential self-immolation.
Suddenly there was a loud noise and the whole house began to shake!
“ALL ABOARD!” someone shouted.
Material, coal and oil among others, that is, in all their forms provide us with portable energy, cheap, lightweight, flexible materials, which we have, in our creative propensity, utilized beyond control in the last three centuries. Like a train starting out the consumption started out slowly, stoking a furnace, that overtime, has pushed the engine of industry to breakneck speed.
“PLEASE HAVE YOUR TICKETS READY!”
“Thank you,” said the conductor. “Dining car to the rear.”
The picture of dinosaurs, behaving and dressed as humans, have invited Jesse on board a train, a dinosaur train, to dine upon, to use this material, and by the very image of its origin provides us with a grim yet poignant reminder of the risk of this invitation, persuaded by the very creatures whose doom provided us the resources for our meteoric rise and potential downfall.
“Let me show you the view from the sky windows.”
Jesse is again invited by a large dinosaur (a Brontosaurus in this case), while consuming an overly large cup of what one would presume to be pop (and before bedtime too!), invited to view the panorama from above the train.
“Tunnel ahead!” Jesse yelled. “Duck!”
Given a view of the sky, the limitless dome, while the train is shown astride a track placed on solid ground, it’s Jesse who provides a warning (in a caffeinated alert state perhaps). A warning to the colossal beings whose world Jesse is visiting. But what does this tunnel represent? To the dinosaurs whose heads sit upon elongated necks the danger is obvious, but what else does this tunnel represent? The tunnel is sure to be dark and until the train’s lamp illuminates the short distance ahead no one is certain to know what is inside. Perhaps the tunnel represents the future, on obvious but apt analogy used in many previous works of literature.
When they came out of the tunnel, Jessie said, “Look! That’s amazing.”
Everyone leaned over to see.
A volcano, another representation of doom, viewed from the train. The train, and its occupants, on it’s precarious position, sitting on the tracks, balanced on two steel rails, hurtling at altitude while the occupants blissfully admire the portent of doom. Is it in sheer ignorance that the dinosaurs lean to the same side, placing the perilously balanced train off balance? At the same time Jesse has gone from providing warning of the tunnel to pointing out the volcano, unaware of the disastrous effect of his declaration.
UH-OH!
The train has flipped, and lept off the tracks, due to the imbalance caused by the dinosaurs leaning to one side of the train to get a better view of the volcano. The parable has grown quite palpable by now, tantamount forcing the reader to swallow a quart of diesel.
Jesse took charge. “Come on, you can do it!”
“Push it back on the track!”
Taking charge, directing the dinosaurs, in this case a Triceratops and Pachycephalosaurs, to push the train back on the track. Though Jesse takes charge he doesn’t give any specific instruction, only giving encouragement while the dinosaurs must figure out a solution for themselves, in the end using their brute strength to right the train. The train is now back on track.
“Thanks, son. You can ride up here with me.”
Said by presumably a Tyrannosaurus Rex, as we can only see it’s large three-digit appendage ferocious claws shown up close for the first time , by its very name and implied history, the king of dinosaurs. Does the T-Rex represent anything? Anyone? Surely the T-Rex is the conductor, and by offering Jesse to ride up front has bestowed an honor on him.
“Next stop… JESSE’S ROOM!”
The vista given, up among the clouds, the train, while lighted inside to the inhabitants of the train cabins, there is only twilight to gleam the surroundings while traveling to a presumed but uncertain destination, like the tunnel an analogy of the future. In this case the analogy isn’t necessarily gloomy, and I posit while it is open to interpretation, the point is to draw neither a negative nor positive conclusion.
This short story is surely allegorical, taking creatures and elements of the past, reconstructed and combined to deliver a potent message. There are warning signs. The future can be dark and uncertain, warnings viewed on the periphery, some drawing closer on the horizon. In the end it’s up to the passengers, past and future, to decide what they see and how they will react.
Was it 10 to 5 until the Dinosaur Train?
On the surface Dinosaur Train is a story of a child’s (Jesse) imagination. I dare you to think deeper, reading between the lines, and looking beyond the immediate landscape presented. We are given a hidden message, a foreboding warning de déjà vu.
We start on a Thursday, a Thursday evening much like any other for Jesse…
Trains and dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs and trains.
Just before bed Jess drew one last picture (dinosaurs on a train).
Jesse is carrying on like any Thursday, but for some strange reason it is not going to be like any past Thursday evening. This is obviously symbolic as dinosaurs and trains did not coexist in any point in history (at least not in their whole compositions). Dinosaurs, purportedly, ceased to exist tens of millions of years past, their ruin not certain but most likely a seemingly random event, a large rock traveling through space at great speed, brought to an abrupt halt by the earth’s atmosphere then surface. As the dinosaurs, and a great share of the earths organic mass, were consumed in fire, propelled skyward, buried by ash and left to decompose and break down through countless epoch, they were to leave behind the material for both people kind’s rise, and potential self-immolation.
Suddenly there was a loud noise and the whole house began to shake!
“ALL ABOARD!” someone shouted.
Material, coal and oil among others, that is, in all their forms provide us with portable energy, cheap, lightweight, flexible materials, which we have, in our creative propensity, utilized beyond control in the last three centuries. Like a train starting out the consumption started out slowly, stoking a furnace, that overtime, has pushed the engine of industry to breakneck speed.
“PLEASE HAVE YOUR TICKETS READY!”
“Thank you,” said the conductor. “Dining car to the rear.”
The picture of dinosaurs, behaving and dressed as humans, have invited Jesse on board a train, a dinosaur train, to dine upon, to use this material, and by the very image of its origin provides us with a grim yet poignant reminder of the risk of this invitation, persuaded by the very creatures whose doom provided us the resources for our meteoric rise and potential downfall.
“Let me show you the view from the sky windows.”
Jesse is again invited by a large dinosaur (a Brontosaurus in this case), while consuming an overly large cup of what one would presume to be pop (and before bedtime too!), invited to view the panorama from above the train.
“Tunnel ahead!” Jesse yelled. “Duck!”
Given a view of the sky, the limitless dome, while the train is shown astride a track placed on solid ground, it’s Jesse who provides a warning (in a caffeinated alert state perhaps). A warning to the colossal beings whose world Jesse is visiting. But what does this tunnel represent? To the dinosaurs whose heads sit upon elongated necks the danger is obvious, but what else does this tunnel represent? The tunnel is sure to be dark and until the train’s lamp illuminates the short distance ahead no one is certain to know what is inside. Perhaps the tunnel represents the future, on obvious but apt analogy used in many previous works of literature.
When they came out of the tunnel, Jessie said, “Look! That’s amazing.”
Everyone leaned over to see.
A volcano, another representation of doom, viewed from the train. The train, and its occupants, on it’s precarious position, sitting on the tracks, balanced on two steel rails, hurtling at altitude while the occupants blissfully admire the portent of doom. Is it in sheer ignorance that the dinosaurs lean to the same side, placing the perilously balanced train off balance? At the same time Jesse has gone from providing warning of the tunnel to pointing out the volcano, unaware of the disastrous effect of his declaration.
UH-OH!
The train has flipped, and lept off the tracks, due to the imbalance caused by the dinosaurs leaning to one side of the train to get a better view of the volcano. The parable has grown quite palpable by now, tantamount forcing the reader to swallow a quart of diesel.
Jesse took charge. “Come on, you can do it!”
“Push it back on the track!”
Taking charge, directing the dinosaurs, in this case a Triceratops and Pachycephalosaurs, to push the train back on the track. Though Jesse takes charge he doesn’t give any specific instruction, only giving encouragement while the dinosaurs must figure out a solution for themselves, in the end using their brute strength to right the train. The train is now back on track.
“Thanks, son. You can ride up here with me.”
Said by presumably a Tyrannosaurus Rex, as we can only see it’s large three-digit appendage ferocious claws shown up close for the first time , by its very name and implied history, the king of dinosaurs. Does the T-Rex represent anything? Anyone? Surely the T-Rex is the conductor, and by offering Jesse to ride up front has bestowed an honor on him.
“Next stop… JESSE’S ROOM!”
The vista given, up among the clouds, the train, while lighted inside to the inhabitants of the train cabins, there is only twilight to gleam the surroundings while traveling to a presumed but uncertain destination, like the tunnel an analogy of the future. In this case the analogy isn’t necessarily gloomy, and I posit while it is open to interpretation, the point is to draw neither a negative nor positive conclusion.
This short story is surely allegorical, taking creatures and elements of the past, reconstructed and combined to deliver a potent message. There are warning signs. The future can be dark and uncertain, warnings viewed on the periphery, some drawing closer on the horizon. In the end it’s up to the passengers, past and future, to decide what they see and how they will react.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 8, 2009
Not even that great for a kid who loves trains and dinosaurs. There was something missing from the pages in this book, not in a good way that would get kids thinking, just in a dopey author & half-baked illustrator kind of way. I had to explain to my four-year-old what the book meant even though all the vocab was beneath him and the illustrations were simple. One to avoid.
November 28, 2018
Imagine you are getting ready for bed when you hear a train full of dinos coming towards you. This is what happens to Jesse, a young boy, looking for adventure. Jesse gets on this train and sees all kinds of dinosaurs, from long necks to Stegosauruses and even the mighty T-Rex. Jesse is having the time of his life when all of a sudden, the train goes off its tracks. The dinosaurs have to work together as a team to get the train going back on its tracks. This is a well-illustrated book with lots of details and funny pictures. All the dinosaurs have human clothes on and walk on two legs. Kids especially love the volcanoes. It only makes me wish that there was actually such a thing as a dinosaur train.
August 6, 2018
My Review: Munchkin picked this book out at the library. It was a fun concept, dinosaurs on a train but it just didn't fit. The little boy likes dinosaurs and trains and they were just smashed together. It would have been nice to have a little more of an explanation, even Munchkin was asking why the dinosaurs were on the train, why they were wearing clothes and if they were driving. It was fun to see the little boy direct the dinosaurs how to fix the train but all in all it wasn't for us.
March 16, 2019
Fiction, imaginative. I can see many of my students relating to the main character who loves both trains and dinosaurs. The prose was simple and short paired with non-overwhelming pictures with enough details to keep kiddos busy pointing out and answering wh- or yes/no questions through a reading.
May 29, 2021
To be brutally honest, I'm not the biggest fan of hour this kid (kind of) made the dino train crash and then had to tell them how to fix it. Yes, I'm probably misinterpreting the book but how cool would it be if he was more of a passenger in this journey (pun intended)?
November 29, 2023
Jesse is a boy who loves dinosaurs and trains. One night a dinosaur comes to his bedroom and says, "All aboard!" Jesse goes on a night train ride with dinosaurs. I liked the beginning more than the ending.
August 22, 2025
Dinosaurs and trains... then this book should have been way better. Little about the train, little about the dinosaurs. It could have been any creature on any vehicle, and it wouldn't have changed the story any.
And is the T-rex toking up steam on the cover!!?? Why???
And is the T-rex toking up steam on the cover!!?? Why???
May 29, 2017
While the story is rather short the illustrations make up for that. My daughter enjoyed the pictures a lot. Would recommend if the child likes dinosaurs or trains or both.
August 31, 2018
Adorable and awesome fantasy adventure of a child.
January 29, 2019
My 18 month old gives it 5 Stars and I give it 2. Colorful pictures and plenty of dinos. (Dumb story, sorry)
December 28, 2020
I don't think this book is the source of the show "Dinosaur Train" on PBS, but it was an enjoyable short read about a little boy who is invited to ride on a train with dinosaurs.
January 2, 2021
1/2/21 read library copy a little ripped on the front and back pages. Cute book. Should keep. Short.
January 9, 2021
My son loves this book. Dinosaurs and Trains, two of his favorite things in this beautifully illustrated book.
October 1, 2021
Cute, whimsical story. The art was fun and exciting. Great for capturing the attention of little ones.
July 14, 2023
A fun bedtime story.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews