Dinosaur Beach by Frann Preston-Gannon

Dinosaur Beach by Frann Preston-Gannon is out now – we received a copy to review. Last year we reviewed a lovely book by the author, ‘How to Lose a Lemur’ – which we enjoy reading a lot too, so knew we’d enjoy this one.

dinosaur beach by frann preston gannon

Dinosaur Beach by Frann Preston-Gannon is a lovely story. H is currently on gold level at school as far as reading goes (she has just turned five), and we’ve been working on expression and punctuation which this book gives great examples of. I feel this book is ideal for space and expression.

It is a book of few words, but those that are there are engaging – and the pictures tell the story too. H read it on her own to start with, and I asked her questions about what happened. Her understanding of the book and the story was perfect, she was able to describe everything and even used a little bit of numeracy in there (there are ice creams and lollies bought, she worked out the total).

She could identify each dinosaur and found what they did funny – we read it together afterwards and she could barely read it for giggling! Her expression while reading (between giggles) was perfect too.

dinosaur beach by frann preston gannon

Dinosaur Beach tells a simple story with beautiful illustrations, is funny, has a font which is good for reading (NOT comic sans!) and is available now from all good booksellers.

Frann Preston-Gannon was the first UK winner of the Maurice Sendak Fellowship where she spent a month working with him.

We were sent a copy of this book for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own. We also have Frann Preston-Gannon’s new book for review, ‘The Sloth Slept On’ coming very soon! This post contains an Amazon affiliate link.

How To Lose A Lemur by Frann Preston-Gannon

How To Lose a Lemur is a new book by Frann Preston-Gannon, published by Pavilion Books. ‘Everyone knows that once a lemur takes a fancy to you there is not much that can be done about it’. So Very True.

How To Lose A Lemur

How To Lose A Lemur is a fun book – the story of a boy who is followed by lemurs, who desperately tries to escape them; but they’re everywhere. He hides up a tree, disguises himself, rows off in a boat, takes the train, climbs a mountain and takes to the air in a hot air balloon (as well as a few more things), but STILL those pesky lemurs won’t leave him alone. Then he gets lost. Fortunately the lemurs are there who help guide him back home via all the places he’d been to escape them.

We’ve already read the book several times. The language is nice and simple and she’s able to work out words in it; the font is clear too. The illustrations are lovely – a mixture of hand and computer painted artwork. Add to that a story with a message about the value of friendship aimed at 2-5 year olds and really this is the kind of book most children will enjoy.

Reading How to Lose A Lemur

It’s quirky like an Oliver Jeffers book, with elements of ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’ at the end retracing their steps – with a happy positive message at the end.

How to Lose A Lemur is out today, 10th October 2013 and available in all good bookstores (I saw it well stocked in Waterstones earlier today).

We’ll be checking out more of Frann Preston-Gannon’s work now as I feel like these books could be our cup of tea – her previous two books are The Journey Home and Dinosaur Farm. Add to that there’s more Lemur books to come – ‘How To Love Your Lemur’ and ‘When Lemurs Come To Christmas’ – we can’t wait!

We were provided with a copy of the book for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own. The link above is an affiliate link.