This book along with all the how to catch a books I’ve read with the littles have been great! this one was amazing for the group of kiddos I read to! Both girls and boys enjoyed it and found it entertaining and funny! We got quite a few giggles throughout the book! we love this series!

My grandson loved this story. He loves dinosaurs and science/inventions so this was right up his alley. A young boy has set his sights on winning his school's upcoming science fair. His plan is to catch a dinosaur. He makes plans and with the help of his friends, they might just make this dream a reality. The excited dinosaur hunters head to the local park to try their luck at catching just one dinosaur. Along the way they discover clues that let them know they are heading in the right direction. Are they going to be successful? Will they win first prize, a bright red shiny bike?

The illustrations are very well done. They show expression and emotion on the faces of the children. They are animated and make the search look real. Unfortunately the text was not quite as good. The cadence of the rhymes was inconsistent with some great pages, then some awkward verses. As the reader I think it bothered me more than my grandson who was listening to the story. He really enjoyed it. He liked the illustrations and the idea that they were hunting for a dinosaur, even though he kept telling me that dinosaurs don't live on earth anymore, it is just pretend. He asked me to "keep this one so I can read it to him again when he comes over this week." A definite keeper.

I received an arc of this title from Netgalley for an honest review. There are a lot of dinosaur books out there for parents and kids to choose from and I don't think that this one is a going to be a new favorite. This book is just odd and doesn't flow very well.

How to catch a Dinosaur by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton

Adam Wallace's and Andy Elkerton's How-To stories are always super cute, and their prehistoric version, How to Catch a Dinosaur, definitely fits right in with the rest of these fun stories.

Your young readers are sure to find this book hilarious, and it will naturally become one of their new favorite How-To stories. The illustrations are bright, the characters are adorable, and the humor oozes out of each page.

The focus of How to Catch a Dinosaur is centered around a group of children that are making trap-after-trap in their efforts to catch a dinosaur. To them, there is no way dinosaurs could be extinct, and in one little boy’s efforts to win the science fair, this group of friends is determined to find the impossible. No matter what they do, they cannot seem to stop the elusive dinosaur.


Your little readers will enjoy reading along as they see this cleaver dinosaur outwits every trap the children set for him. They will also enjoy the crazy ideas the kids try to stop the dinosaur that is undoubtedly on the loose.

While some of the lyrical rhymes are forced, this is a pretty cute book about 4 kids who want to capture a dinosaur to win their Science Fair. The protagonist is a white male but has help from a diverse cast of friends throughout the entire book. They come up with some pretty creative ways to try to catch their elusive reptile while giving handy facts and alluding to several pop culture references along the way. Will be purchasing for our library.

I received a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a very cute book about a group of friends that want to win the science fair by having a dinosaur. It gives some generic information about dinosaurs. The pictures are fun and bright. The text is flowed well and rhymed. If you have a child that loves dinosaurs. this would be a fun read aloud.

I received an electronic ARC from SOURCEBOOKS Kids through NetGalley.
The latest in the How To series by Wallace.
In this book, the kids try to catch a dinosaur to show at the science fair. They set up more and more elaborate traps throughout the story but the dino evades capture. They still win first place as they enter their inventions including a robot.
Kids will enjoy the humor of the text and the brightly illustrated pages. Wallace slips facts in as well. Readers can think about their own methods to trap a dinosaur and discuss the techniques this group used.

Thank you #netgalley for giving me a copy of this book to review. This cute picture book is good little adventure book for kids. I thought some of the rhymes were a little forced, but overall very nice. The tricky dinosaur was a character that my kids liked. A good addition to an elementary library.

This newest installment in the New York times and USA Today bestselling series is sure to delight every dinosaur fan!

"Can you catch a dinosaur
and prove they're still around?
Use your brain and set your traps
to get that dino found!

A young boy has set his sights on being first in his school's upcoming science fair. How does he plan to achieve his goal? He's going to catch a Dinosaur that's how. But will his dream become a reality?

With the help of his friends plans are hatched that just might do the trick. The excited dinosaur hunters head to the local park to try their luck at bagging a big old beast. They discover clues along the way that confirm that they are on the right track. Is catching a dinosaur obtainable? Will first prize, a bright red shiny bike, be theirs to keep?

The illustrations are truly remarkable. They bring expression, emotion and animation to the rhyming tale. As for the rhyming? Sad to say I found it awkward and choppy and extremely hard to read aloud as the text did not flow happily off of your tongue. I think kids will relate to the book because the illustrations are so strong and enrich and drive the storyline along. I just wish the rhyming was better then it would be winner for me for sure.

Fantastic illustrations, great rhyming. Watch the kids build science experiments in attempts to catch a real dinosaur. Of course, a little Jurassic Park humor thrown in is always a good idea.

I don't think this series is for me.

I read How to Catch the Easter Bunny last month, and I found it weird and uninspired. What kind of prey gives hunting suggestions to a predator? I figured that may just have been the weirdness of that particular book since it deals with a mythological creature. Unfortunately, even though we're dealing with a real creature here, I didn't like this one much more.

The story this time, rather than being told from the point of view of the dinosaur (as I was expecting, given how that other book was written), is told by a young boy who wants to win the science fair. He thinks that if he can just catch a dinosaur, he might have a chance. The book does point out that dinosaur relatives are still around, and that birds are distant cousins of the "terrible lizards". But then it basically shows an anthropomorphized dinosaur running around a modern neighbourhood. (That blurs the line between reality and fantasy just a little too much for me. While that premise didn't bother me so much in the book about the Easter Bunny, it could be confusing to some kids when they read a book that implies real dinosaurs are still around.)

As for the writing... Oh, dear. The rhyming text is so clunky. Getting the rhythm and meter right must be a tricky thing to do, because I rarely see it done well. It's not done particularly well here at all. You can't just rhyme the last two words of the second and fourth lines and ignore the number of syllables in the rest of the text. At least, you can't if you want it to roll off the tongue.

Overall, this didn't impress me that much. The illustrations are perhaps the strongest part of the book. But the implication that dinosaurs are running around suburbia coupled with the clumsy rhyming text make this a book that I'd have a hard time recommending.

Cute book. Great STEM title. The rhyming was somewhat contrived on some pages but the pictures are bright and colorful and kids should love this title!

These books are a huge hit in my libraries! The STEAM elements the children utilize to "catch" the creature, in this case a dinosaur are always cleaver and fun. The repetition in the book series and the rhymes are very catchy for the kiddos. In this particular volume, the kids work together to catch a dinosaur for the science fair, but when they fail, they discover they've made plenty of inventions for the fair along the way! Love this series!