What are good dinosaur books and gifts for a dinosaur-mad child?

Give a dinosaur-mad child two dinosaur books that suit their age, one funny story to read aloud and one fact book they can quote back at you. Then add one gift that gets the dinosaurs off the page, like a dig kit, a museum trip or a full-size T. rex laid out in string.

None of the books on this list are ours. They’re all from other publishers, and each one carries the age band BookTrust gives it. Our own counting book, More Than I Can Count, has tyrannosaurs to tickle, and there’s a section on it further down. If a cousin on your list would rather have trains than T. rexes, our Christmas gift guide for ages 0 to 9 has the rest of your list covered.

The short version

1. Under 3: a sturdy board book with sliders, flaps or a noise to make.
2. Ages 2 to 7: a rhyming picture book you can roar your way through.
3. Around 5 and up: a comic-style fact book or a first chapter book with pictures.
4. Choose the gift by how they play with dinosaurs, not by the shop aisle.
5. Write in the front, so the book still says who it’s from when the dinosaur phase is long gone.

Dinosaur books by age

Their age matters more than which dinosaur you see on the cover. A two year old wants something to push and slide, and a seven year old wants jokes, facts and a plot. Every age band below comes from BookTrust’s list of dinosaur books (2026), the reading charity’s own picks.

Under 3: books to slide, wobble and count

• Peekaboo Dinosaur by Camilla Reid, illustrated by Ingela P Arrhenius (0 to 3). It’s a board book with ten sliders and a mirror.
• Dinosaur’s Wobbly Bottom by Kit Frost, illustrated by Sam Rennocks (0 to 7). A cheeky board book about dancing dinosaurs with wobbly bottoms.
• Five Enormous Dinosaurs, illustrated by Annie Kubler and Sarah Dellow (0 to 2). A rhyme they’ll count along to.

Your board book will get dropped, chewed and read again and again, so we’d go for sturdy over beautiful. Then let them do the sliding.

Ages 2 to 7: picture books to roar along to

• Five Little Dinosaurs by Mike Brownlow, illustrated by Simon Rickerty (2 to 4). Soft felt flaps to lift while five hungry dinosaurs hunt for food.
• Was that your bottom, Dinosaur? by Sam Taplin, illustrated by Ana Larrañaga (2 to 4). A board book with sound, about dinosaurs and farts. BookTrust’s reviewer admits parents might want to hide it under a sofa cushion now and then.
• 1, 2, 3, Do the Dinosaur by Michelle Robinson, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw (2 to 7). Tom puts on his dino costume for a dance through the jungle, and BookTrust picks it out as one to read aloud.
• Dinosaurs on Kitten Island by Michael Slack (2 to 7). Some bored dinosaurs go on a playdate with a gang of adventurous kittens.
• Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs by Ian Whybrow, illustrated by Adrian Reynolds (4 to 9). Helping Gran clear the attic, Harry finds a pile of dusty old dinosaurs, then loses them.
• Never Show a T-Rex a Book by Rashmi Sirdeshpande, illustrated by Diane Ewen (4 to 7). A girl wonders what a real dinosaur would do with her book.

Do every roar properly. If you hold back, they’ll do it for you, and louder.

We’d save The Dinosaur that Pooped Christmas by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter, illustrated by Garry Parsons (2 to 9), for Christmas Eve. Santa decides to teach a lesson to a boy whose list is far too long. You’ll find more Christmas stories by age in our separate guide.

Ages 5 to 9: jokes, chapters and a plot

• Tyrannosaurus Drip by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by David Roberts (5 to 9). A fierce Tyrannosaurus family hatches a duckbill dinosaur egg by mistake.
• Dino Dad by Andy Day, illustrated by Steven Lenton (5 to 9). A funny chapter book about a girl and her dad who can change into dinosaurs.
• Marv and the Dino Attack by Alex Falase-Koya, illustrated by Paula Bowles (5 to 9). A secret superhero’s school trip to see real dinosaur bones goes wrong when the bones come to life.
• Rex: Dinosaur in Disguise by Elys Dolan (5 to 14). A dinosaur thaws out of a block of ice and wanders into the modern world.

Fact books for the child who corrects your pronunciation

Some dinosaur fans don’t want a story at all. They’re after names, teeth and sizes, so give them a fact book they can pore over without you.

• Creature Features: Dinosaurs by Natasha Durley (2 to 9). Teeth, armour and spiny sails, in a board book. BookTrust notes that younger readers may need help with the longer names.
• Dig Dig Dinosaur by Professor Anjali Goswami, illustrated by Maggie Li (2 to 4). It’s a non-fiction picture book about three children on an expedition to find dinosaurs.
• The Wild Life of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals by Mike Barfield, illustrated by Paula Bossio (5 to 9). Comic-style non-fiction that takes readers back to meet the animals of prehistoric times.
• A First Book of Dinosaurs by Simon Mole, illustrated by Matt Hunt (4 to 9). Strictly, this one’s poetry: thirty funny, illustrated poems, for a fact fan who also likes a rhyme.

Once they start correcting you, the Natural History Museum’s online Dino Directory gives a pronunciation for each one. Tyrannosaurus, for the record, is tie-RAN-oh-sore-us.

Match the gift to the kind of dinosaur fan they are

We’d watch how they play with dinosaurs first, then buy for that. A child who lines up figures in size order wants something different from one who stomps round the kitchen in a tail. Here’s how we’d pair a gift with a book from above:

• The roarer. A dinosaur tail or costume, with 1, 2, 3, Do the Dinosaur to read while they’re wearing it.
• The collector. Three or four well-made figures and Creature Features: Dinosaurs, so they can hunt for their figures in its pages.
• The digger. A plaster dig kit, or a field kit of a soft brush, a magnifying glass and a notebook, with Dig Dig Dinosaur. Then take the notebook to a museum and let them sketch the skeletons.
• The giggler. Tyrannosaurus Drip, or for under fives, Was that your bottom, Dinosaur? Add a cooperative board game as well, so nobody ends up roaring about losing.
• The maker. A mould-and-paint dinosaur kit and A First Book of Dinosaurs. Then ask them to invent a dinosaur and write its poem.

If you can’t tell which one they are, ask their parents what the dinosaurs are up to at the moment, and expect a very long answer.

A T. rex in the park: a gift that costs almost nothing

Give them 12 metres of string and a promise that you’ll lay it out together. That’s the length the Natural History Museum’s Dino Directory gives for a T. rex.

1. Measure the string. Use a tape measure, and tie a knot at every metre so there’s something to count.
2. Wind it round a card and wrap it. Write a tag that says ‘This is how long a T. rex was. Wellies on, we’re going to the park.’
3. Lay it out together. Count the knots, then count how many of their biggest steps it takes to get from tail to nose.
4. Add a tooth. The same page says T. rex teeth were up to 20 centimetres long. Cut one out of card at that size and hold it next to their hand.

That’s one dinosaur fact turned into an afternoon out, and you’ll probably be asked for a Diplodocus next. The Dino Directory puts that one at 26 metres, so buy more string.

Where our book comes in

We don’t make a dinosaur book. Our More Than I Can Count is a counting adventure that shows a child how much they’re loved, made for ages 0 to 5. Alongside numbers, colours, shapes and a few words in other languages, there are tyrannosaurs to tickle. You choose from 6 characters.

So for a dinosaur fan under six, we’d give it next to a dinosaur book, not instead of one. Ours is the one with their name in it.

Imagine a three year old called Hugo who won’t go anywhere without his plastic Triceratops. Go for the character you think he’d point at first, and give the book with Five Little Dinosaurs. That’s two counting books, and one of them is about him. Teddy hides on every page of our books, so there’s a bear to hunt for as well as tyrannosaurs to tickle.

Then write him a few lines for the front. You might put ‘Hugo, you do the counting and I’ll do the tyrannosaur voices. Love, Auntie Priya.’ If you’d like more ideas, we’ve written a guide to writing a message in a child’s book.

How The Kids Book Company helps

Each copy of our books is printed to order for the one child whose name is in it, and the message you add goes into the front for free.

If you’d like a look before you buy, every title has a free personalised digital edition through the Free Book Project. There’s no credit card, it takes under five minutes, and the PDF opens on a tablet, phone or computer. You make an account with your email, so we’ve got somewhere to send it.

Create their free book.

Related questions

What’s a good dinosaur book for a 3 year old?

Pick one they can join in with. Five Little Dinosaurs (BookTrust: 2 to 4) has felt flaps to lift, and 1, 2, 3, Do the Dinosaur (2 to 7) has a dino dance to join in with. If your three year old would rather have facts, try Dig Dig Dinosaur (2 to 4).

What’s a good dinosaur book for a 5 year old?

Tyrannosaurus Drip (BookTrust: 5 to 9) is a rhyming story built on a mix-up. Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs (4 to 9) suits a child who keeps a box of figures. For facts, The Wild Life of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals (5 to 9) tells them comic-style.

How big was a T. rex?

About 12 metres long and 3.5 to 4 metres tall at the hips, according to the Natural History Museum, with teeth up to 20 centimetres long. The biggest ones found were almost 13 metres long, though the museum says most were probably smaller than that.

Are there personalised dinosaur books?

Some publishers make them. Ours isn’t a dinosaur story, though our counting book, More Than I Can Count, has tyrannosaurs to tickle and stars your child in the story. It’s made for ages 0 to 5, and you can add a message we print in the front.