#365PictureBooks 11. There's a Dinosaur in my Bathtub by Catalina Echeverri

Echeverri, C. (2014). There's a Dinosaur in my Bathtub. London, UK: Bloomsbury.

ISBN: 9781408839393
Pages: 32
Age Level: Early Childhood 0-6
Genre: Picture Storybook
Rating: 3 stars

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And another dinosaur book.  Sorry.  I do like them.  And this time it's a clean on :-) 

'Hello!  My name is Amelia and I have something very important to tell you.

Shhh! 

It's a secret so you mustn't tell anyone in the whole world ... OK?'

Amelia has a friend called Pierre visiting from France.  Only ... he's a dinosaur.   And he is in her bath.  Which makes it very difficult when Amelia's mother and father want to use the bathroom.  Luckily he's really good at hiding.  And Amelia is actually the only person who can see him.

This story is told in the first person with Amelia describing her adventures with Pierre.  Actually this book makes me think of a photo-essay type book with the images and text combining to give the reader a 'you-are-there' feeling.  

Echeverri's illustrations remind me of Lauren Child's style - kind of a collage effect.  In fact there are a number of pages where the images appear three-dimensional - like when they are sailing their bathtub to magical lands.  They tie in really well with the story.  And they are very bright and colourful.  

There is one page that you need to turn length-ways to read ... after all you can't fit a giant ice cream onto a standard page, can you?

I particularly like the page where Amelia's parents are trying to get into the bathroom.  Poor Pierre looks so worried!  There are two pages showing just how good Pierre is at hiding - very clever dinosaur!  

This is a dinosaur book for GIRLS to enjoy.  After all most dinosaur books have BOYS in them, but there are none to be seen in here... well except for Pierre and her dad.

A gorgeous story about imaginary friends.  Even though I've listed it as an Early Childhood 0-6 book I believe it will be enjoyed by many of our slightly older kids, especially as it has a lot of 'bigger' words in it.  It will be especially good for buddy reading or as a bed-time read by parents. 

I really wanted to love this book, but I felt that some of the pages were just too busy, and at times the language comes across as too 'old' for the intended audience.

I got my copy of There's a Dinosaur in my Bathtub from the Taradale Primary School library where I work. 

You can find a copy at Napier Libraries.