It’s so important to have books that teach children at a young age to look positively at life, to focus on what they can do rather than what they cannot do as they navigate through life learning. So when I came across The Dinosaur Who Lost Her Voice written by Julie Ballard, illustrated by Francesca Gambatesa and published by Egmont I had to share it with you.

This is the story of Milly Jo, the dinosaur with the most beautiful singing voice. However, one day a storm strikes and poor Milly Jo loses her voice after being struck by a tree on her long neck. Milly Jo struggles to cope with the loss of her talents, and as much as her dino friends try to support her and cheer her up, nothing really helps. However, Milly soon learns to put her skills to a different use by setting up a choir and helping the other dinosaurs to sing, and soon she realises that she can still be amazing just in a different way.

This is really such a lovely positive story and a really important message to get across to young children. Julie’s writing is gorgeous, the rhymes work really well and flow beautifully, making it such an enjoyable book to read out loud. The message in the story about focusing on what you can do rather than what you can’t do is really so important. As young children make their way through life, learning different thing, trying new tasks some of which they can do and some of which they may struggle with, it shows how to focus on their talents and use them to their advantage. It’s also so lovely to have a story about a disability, which looks at the positive, how a sad situation can be turned around to a positive. It’s a lovely sweet concept executed perfectly.

Franscesca’s illustrations in this story are gorgeous. Bright and colourful, with every spread giving new details to look for, there is plenty in here to keep young children entertained. Children love dinosaurs as a subject, they’re incredibly popular, so it was an inspired direction by Julie to take this story, and Francesca has created the characters in a lovely eye catching way, each spread is bursting with character and colour.

The final message in The Dinosaur Who Lost Her Voice is clearly explained and makes for a lovely sentiment that will touch hearts and make you smile. This is a joyful, positive book which is easy to read, entertaining and visually appealing. A lovely choice for the classroom and library shelves.

The Dinosaur Who Lost Her Voice is now available from all good bookshops and libraries.

You can find out more about Julie Ballard by following her on Twitter
https://twitter.com/julieballard3

To find out more about illustrator Francesca Gambatesa please visit her beautiful internet corner here:
https://www.francescagam.co.uk/

Egmont Publishing can be found here:
www.egmont.co.uk

Thank you to Egmont for sending me a copy of this book and thank you for reading this Book Monster review.