Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs (Harry and the Dinosaurs)

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Harry wants to stay up all night so he goes to Dino-World where he can play for as long as he wants. When Harry accidentally leaves them on a train, he learns that videos and TV can't replace the fun and friendship he had with his dinosaurs.

Harry is finding it difficult to learn to play the violin and is fearful about performing in his school concert so he goes to Dino-World to practice. Harry makes a giant origami fan from some blueprint designs created by Tatsu, the fan blows out Tatsu's fire thus enabling him to continue making origami animals. Every other character just assumes 'Dino World' is a figment of Harry's imagination and "plays along". But with Pillow Mountain to cross, snails on the line and a shortage of track, will they be able to fulfil their promise?Harry is reluctant to have a bath so he goes to Dino-World where he endeavours to become as dirty and stinky as he possibly can. When they meet Nancy the Nanosaurus, they discover that the wind isn't the only thing missing and before long, 'The Wind Finders' have become 'The Bird Finders' who in turn, become 'The Seed Finders' and 'The Rain Cloud Finders'! Nana is reading Harry a bedtime fairy story, but decides it is time for Harry to go to sleep before the story is finished. Princess Pamela's castle seems to be the perfect place to start, but the royal pets Max and Muffin have other ideas and decide to take the opportunity to make a getaway – taking the key with them! I'm never one to believe we need another picture book about dinosaurs, but Whybrow's book is less about dinosaurs and more about a character who self initiates creative play and learning.

The Dinos are helping Harry look through his old toys for something he can give to Charley's new baby cousin. However, when faced with losing his hair as a result of his uncleanness, Harry decides a bath would actually be quite nice after all.Harry and the dinosaurs have fun speaking backwards and meeting many amusingly odd characters along their back to front travels.

Whilst playing in the yard with Charley, Harry insists on being first on the swing, and then manages to destroy her sandcastle by being boisterous in the sandbox. At first glance they are surprised that everything looks the same, when it suddenly dawns on them that everything is in the wrong place.Feeling consistent with a child's perspective, full of boundless unquantified love, reading this again transported me back to my childhood self. Harry has a nightmare in which he is chased by a monster, so he goes to Dino-World in an attempt to hide from it. But with their ability to hide almost anywhere, the shadows aren't going to make it easy for their more solid counterparts to find them! When Harry comes home with exciting tales from his day at school, the Dinos wish that they could go to school too.

They finally settle on some building blocks as the perfect present, but discover that most of the set are missing. When Harry is told to tidy his room, he simply transfers all the mess into Dino-world, where he is told there is a 'no tidying up rule'.But as the Dinos point out, they were there first and have already discovered everything and given it a name! Harry is nervous about giving a speech about dinosaurs to his classmates, so he goes to Dino-World to practice, in the hope of gaining confidence. It would be fun to ask children in classrooms to imagine what they would do if they had a bucket of dinosaurs, and make up their own stories of their dinosaur friends.