Dylan's Amazing Dinosaurs - Tyrannosaurus Rex by E.T. Harper and Dan Taylor (Simon and Schuster Children's Books)

Here's a successful formula we've seen before from Simon and Schuster - the brilliant "Jack's Mega Machines" stories by Alison Ritchie and Mike Byrne come with a brilliant pop-up cardboard model of the vehicle in the story. Now E.T. Harper and Dan Taylor's "Dylan's Amazing Dinosaurs" series are doing the same thing, introducing kids to various dinosaur species, starting with "the Daddeh!" - The Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Dylan is the proud owner of a fossil journal, given to him by his grandad - and a magical model of a Pteranodon that comes to life and whisks Dylan away on adventures, to find out more about dinosaurs and help him complete his Grandad's fossil records.

The story comes with your own, your very own T-Rex model which takes a bit of extracting from the book in one piece (this is a similar problem we had with the Jack's Mega Machines books but the trick is to warm up that ultra-sticky glue by getting an adult to hold the back of the book against a radiator for a mo or two. This helps the glue come off more cleanly and means you won't damage your awesome dino-model!)

Back to the story and Dylan finds that counting a T-Rex's teeth isn't exactly a breeze (well, have you ever tried to face down a carnivorous dinosaur the length of a double-decker bus and count his toothypegs? We wouldn't advise you to try that at home!)

This is the first book in an eventual series and it's a real win for Charlotte who absolutely loves Dinosaurs, and really loved the "Jack's Mega Machines" collectable books and models. I do take issue with the fact that there has been a lot of furore over books targeted largely at girls when this is very boy-centric (even the back cover features two boys playing with the model rather than a boy and a girl). Girls think that dinosaurs rock too, particularly my little girl, so if you're looking for an exciting story, with a cool model to play with, and an ultra-colourful and brilliantly presented story you're onto a winner with Dylan!

Charlotte's best bit: Dylan in the sinking bog. Phew-eee!

Daddy's Favourite bit: A nice idea to produce more books with these excellent fold-out models. Great for boys but equally good for dino-loving girls too!

(Kindly sent to us for review by Simon and Schuster Children's Books)