Miyuki: Modern Fantasy “How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?”

I chose the book named “How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?” by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Mark Teague.

In the “How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?” there are 10 dinosaurs that behave badly toward human parents before going to bed. In half of the story, they behave nicely such as hug, kissed, tell good night, and go to bed for sleep.

This book’s themes are to challenge children to consider emotional relate at bedtime, and ask about daily life. It is impossible that animals such as dinosaurs talked and hugged with human parents. In addition, it is impossible that dinosaurs spend time with humans in their house. So, this book’s genre is fantasy. Fantasy tends to show animal characters, this story’s characters were dinosaurs. This fantasy is animal fantasy too because it points to human thought and feeling. For example, children can see how dinosaurs acted like human children in the same way as their daily bed time.

This fantasy story is important because it will teach young readers to understand about daily life with bed time such as do not say selfish, and revolt parents. In addition, this story encourages young readers to explore significant morals. In addition, I found that this story’s quality in fantastic literature is imaginative and the structure is clear.  This book’s style uses vivid images to help children to understand the world.

I really love dinosaurs and the same with my old students in Japan, so we tended to make clay models of dinosaurs and read about dinosaurs. So, when I found this book, I was excited and I wanted to read aloud for my students when I will teach this fall.

I noticed that this book wanted to tell about a family’s relationship and how to go bed without self-indulgence. For example, in the picture book, dinosaurs often acted rebellious to their parents, however, they noticed that this behavior is not good. Finally they went to bed and gave kisses and hugs. In my classroom, I will let students read or ask about other animal stories, and I will discuss the different contents and similar contents. In addition, I will ask the students if they have same experience with dinosaurs in their daily life. Students will figure out patterns for their life. Lastly, students will discuss and compare the first half and the end to see what they found with how the dinosaurs behave, and will understand if their behavior is good or not. It is important that children will develop to think over about their behavior in the house.

I noticed that this author, Yolen wants to expose awareness raising because in the past and now, most children tend to have attitude to their parents at bedtime or around the house. Children will figure out if the dinosaurs’ behavior is good or not, and this will teach awareness raising. This book will teach students respect for others because people should respect each other, and not neglect their parents.

Age: 2 - 8 years

For read-aloud Ages 3 - 7 years