Dingley the dancing dinosaur by Karleigh Whyte. Illus. by Aleksandra Szmidt

Dingley loves to dance, but his parents are encouraging him to be the next leader of their pack. And although Dingley loves to dance, he is clumsy and easily trips over his own feet. He feels that he has no groove.

Along comes Trixy the tap dancing triceratops. She offers him her Dad’s tap shoes, but try as he might, he cannot fit his feet into the smaller shoes. Dingley keeps on looking for a dancing partner. Boom, boom, boom he hears, as Benny the breakdancing brachiosaurus offers to teach Dingley some of his moves. This time, Dingley’s head is just too square to form the moves required. Cha cha cha, along comes Sally the salsa dancing stegosaurus and together they dance. That is until Dingley must swirl and in so doing his tail sweeps Sally through the air.

Dingley is distraught and goes off hy himself with tears in his eyes. Along comes Bella the brachyceratops just returning from ballet classes. He explains his problem to her and she gets to its heart telling him he does not need to dance with a parent to get his groove, he can do it all by himself. And so he perseveres until one day he is able to put on a show: he twirls and whirls, spins and swirls before all his friends and his parents, who conclude that he can be whatever he wants to be. Splashes of bold colour illuminate all the pages, ensuring younger readers will love all they see, and their eyes will take in the dinosaurs as well as the detail on each page. Each of the dinosaurs is different, encouraging young readers to see the differences between each of the five animals.

Themes: Dinosaurs, Dancing, Family.

Fran Knight