Dinosaur Beach by Frann Preston-Gannon (Pavilion Children's Books)

How we long for a proper holiday! Sun, sand, sea, Fab lollies and...dinosaurs? Hopefully not dinosaurs though we're half tempted to take Frann Preston-Gannon's "Dinosaur Beach" down to the coast with us for a bit of an in-situ read. The sequel to Frann's fabulous "Dinosaur Farm" with the busy Farmer Jack is a real treat.

Farmer Jack somehow squeezes all the dinosaurs (and not forgetting Dino Dog) into his pick-up truck (along with a huge picnic bag) and heads off to the seaside for the day. Dinosaurs are just like us, and enjoy all the things we do - such as tramping all over other people's picnics, splashing in the sea and huge huge ice creams!

Frann's visual style is absolutely lovely. In the original book I remember we adopted a certain way of reading the book with Farmer Jack's ad-libbed exasperated expressions as the dinosaurs don't always do what they're supposed to do.

In this tale we have a whole other family of folk who have their beach party royally crashed in on by Farmer Jack and his prehistoric pals. Though we love the way everyone ends up as friends at the end, and the tired dinosaurs are rounded up for a snoozy trip home.

A ticklesome treat for tiddlers, particularly if they love dinosaurs as much as Charlotte does.

Charlotte's best bit: A dramatic sea rescue. Only one dinosaur has a long enough neck to reach stranded dog and dino-dog!

Daddy's Favourite bit: We really do love Frann's books. Her easy on the eye visual style is gorgeous, her tale really makes us wish for warm sunny days and beach fun

(Kindly sent to us for review by Pavilion Children's Books)