On the trail of dinosaurs (UsborneTouchy Feely Books: That's Not My Dinosaur - Fiona Watt)

Member Name: dooeyyooey

Product:	UsborneTouchy Feely Books: That's Not My Dinosaur - Fiona Watt
Date:	29/06/09 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting, provides a variety of sensory experiences

Disadvantages: The backgrounds are too plain.

This is another book of the Usborne Touchy-Feely Books series.

The Touchy-Feely books are aimed at providing children with interesting and diverse sensory experiences, by using bright colours and incorporating various materials into the drawings.
Each book follows a little white mouse that is looking for something that he is missing.

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CONTENT
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In this book the little white mouse is trying to find his dinosaur.

Cover: "That's not my dinosaur... its body is too squashy."
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The cover of the book is green and features the little mouse looking up at a purple dinosaur with spots.
These spots are green and made of little cushions.

Page 1: "That's not my dinosaur... its tail is too fuzzy."
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The dinosaur's tail is made of red velcro (the loops side).

Page 2 & 3: "That's not my dinosaur... its teeth are too bumpy."
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The little mouse finds a green tyrannosaurus rex with teeth made of white, ridged cardboard.
The background is red.
I find this scene to be one of the best in the book, the ridged cardboard is surprisingly compelling to touch.

Pages 4 & 5: "That's not my dinosaur... its flippers are too slippery."
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This time the dinosaur the mouse encounters is pink with shiny, pink flippers.
As the scene is set underwater, the background is blue.

This scene is a winner, not because of the dinosaur, but because it features the tiny mouse decked in full diving gear - SO cute!

Pages 6 & 7: "That's not my dinosaur... its horns are too rough."
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In this instance the background is dark green and the dinosaur, which seems to be a triceratops, is red with yellow horns.
The dinosaur's horns are made of a very hard, sandy texture.

Pages 8 & inside of back cover: "That's my dinosaur! Its spines are so soft." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The last scene.
The little mouse finds his dinosaur, which is blue with purple spots. Its spines are made of soft purple fur.
The background is a very bright shade of yellow.

This final scene is quite excellent. I do think the combination of the very bright yellow background and the purple spots and spines is too brash, but the spines have been individually cut out and the soft fur that fills them provides a great sensation when running the fingers over them.

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DIMENSIONS AND MATERIALS
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The book's dimensions are: 16.6 cm x 16.3 cm x 2 cm.

The book has a hard, glossy cover. The pages are board and the entire book - with the exception of the bits of "touchy-feely" materials - is wipeable.
The book is made with paper from a sustainable forest.

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ARTWORK
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The book is written by Fiona Watt with illustrations by Rachel Wells.

The drawings are very simplistic, with thick outlines.

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PRICE
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The recommended retail price of the book is £5.99, but is possible to find it cheaper online and in some supermarkets.

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CONCLUSION
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I really enjoy these Touchy-Feely books, and this one is no exception.
I am, however, only giving it 4 stars because I thought the absolutly plain backgrounds (with the exception of the "water lines" in pages 4 & 5) made the book look too stark.
This is a missed opportunity to make the scenes more interesting and captivating, as it was done in the "That's Not My Dragon..." book.

Other than that, it is a thouroughly enjoyable book.

Summary: Good book for babies and toddlers.