Reading on Repeat with Kids: The Great Dinosaur Sleepover by Linda Bailey & Joe Bluhm

A great book for dinosaur obsessed readers!

Our toddler is obsessed with dinosaurs these days. He recently celebrated his 3rd birthday at the Royal Tyrell Museum (the ultimate dino history museum) in Drumheller, Alberta with his cousins and grandparents. He was gifted dino toys, dino undies, dino hand-made cards, and of course, dino books! One of which became an instant hit and we’ve been reading it every night since (that’s over 3 weeks running).

The Great Dinosaur Sleepover by Canadian author Linda Bailey and illustrations by Joe Bluhm seemed like a book I might have walked by at the bookstore. I hadn’t heard of it before. But I was pleasantly surprised. It’s perfect for my three year old and he would absolutely love to have a dinosaur sleepover party!

The book starts with Jake, the birthday boy, getting told that his friends are all sick with the flu and can’t come to his dinosaur themed sleepover party. A disappointing start for a young boys birthday. But things turnaround quickly. Jake is surprised in the middle of the night by all of his favourite dinosaurs who help to celebrate his birthday by playing games, eating cake, and watching a movie. So fun.

Jake and the dinos decide to venture out to visit Jake’s friends who couldn’t make it to the dino party. All of the kids are blown away by the huge friendly dinos lingering outside of their windows….though none of the kids look sick with the flu or at least not what my kids look like when they are sick with the flu. But let’s not dwell on that.

I read the book a few times before realizing that there was a T-Rex hiding in a lot of the pictures. Probably because I’m half asleep when I’m reading. There were obvious signs. Anyway, you can also play a game of hide-and-seek when reading. Can you spot the one below?

This has been a charming, fun book to read around my son’s birthday and would definitely recommend to the dinosaur obsessed young readers!

And here are a few pictures from our recent Royal Tyrell Museum birthday celebration. I recommend this trip for the whole family! We listened to the Drumheller tour on the GuideAlong App on the drive there (thanks to a friend’s recommendation), so we were prepped for all sorts of historical info. We then listened to the Jurassic Park theme song (which was only appreciated by the parents) as we did the final stretch through the hoodoos and the small town that was littered with dino statues, murals and themed restaurants. This was definitely a birthday to be remembered!

What dino books do you read on repeat?

- Happy Reading!