Review Detail

‘No Dinosaurs Allowed’ by Deborah Hunt, illustrated by Ashleigh Heyns, is a nice story about togetherness, kindness, and learning more about others. While lots of people are initially afraid of Teddy, a dinosaur, his friend Bobby, a little boy, is always there for him. They go places together, and Bobby doesn’t mind sticking by Teddy when things don’t go quite as planned. From trying to go to a birthday party to the zoo and library, there’s always some reason they can’t stay.

Then, when the two visit the park, Teddy finds purpose, one which makes people want to spend time with him and be near him. He makes his tail serve as a swing and slide for the kids visiting the park. Then, on the way home, all of the places that originally had reasons not to want him visiting find ways to incorporate him into their activities.

While it was very nice to see the turn of events so that Teddy could be included, there was not always a clear explanation as to why things changed. It seemed that the zookeeper, for example, went from thinking Teddy would scare the animals to having no problem just a little while later with him coming to meet all of the animals. Some additional lines to clarify why this became okay with him would have been helpful to show the train of thought that made the zookeeper change his mind. It is always nice to see how a thought process changes, especially to show children how to be thoughtful about their own decisions.

All in all, this was a cute story with nice morals to gain from it. It was nice to see Teddy enjoying himself and all of the kids having fun with him.