Tiny T Rex and the Very Dark Dark

Tiny and Pointy are little dinosaurs who would like to camp out in their garden, but they are afraid of the dark. Of course, they are dinosaurs so shouldn’t be scared of anything, even though they are little, so this is a sweet tale of gathering courage to overcome your fears.

The limited colour palette and simple shapes bring a charm to this hardback book. The characters themselves spend a long time preparing for their camp out and the pictures add to this build up too. For example, stegosaurus pyjamas have to include material for the scales… There’s some really amusing illustrations which I’m sure children will love, especially dinosaur loving ones.

There are plenty of books about children being afraid of the dark but this one is good because the two friends try to work together on combatting their fear before they go outside. They combine their brain power to come make up with a plan which is drawn out in the book, including making helmets! They even make a ‘super-bright nighty-light’ which looks wonderful against the dark colours on the pages. But then the dark turns out to be a bit bigger and all-consuming than they’d expected.

There’s some nice pausing in the page layouts for this with a good use of space. Thankfully Pointy and Tiny have a spectacular surprise awaiting them when they pluck up the courage to come out of their tent. This is sweet book with endearing characters to help children overcome their fears, not just of the dark, because working together, as a team, can help overcome lots of difficulties as these two friends prove.