James Skofield

~ from the Library

Skofield's DETECTIVE DINOSAUR is at the high Second Grade reading level. [ Lexile: 330L ]

The book's artwork is done in nice watercolors with expressive characters. What else is nice is that there are 3 separate stories: The Case of the Missing Hat; The Case of the Squeaking Shoe; and Night Patrol. Each story makes for a natural break if you are doing the reading; or gives children some experience with books that have short stories.

There is quite a bit of text in this book. show more 831 words. The font is large but not the super huge print you find in books for First Graders. Some of the pages have images with a half-page of text, but a few pages are all text. Here is some sample text from a half-page.

Then he put on his shoe
and took a step.
There was no squeak.
"Hooray!" said Detective Dinosaur.
"My shoe is no longer angry!"


I think this is a book that would be fun to read to younger children. The stories are quite silly and the artwork is happy. Be prepared to cringe a bit as the silliness is a bit nonsensical.

There's a lot of dialog, by the way. I know that one of my children went through a phase where they disliked reading dialog. If your own child is like that you might want skip this series, or read it to them. show less

Summary: Detective Dinosaur is compiled of three different mysteries. Detective Dinosaur solves the mystery of the missing hat, the squeaking shoes, and the noise in the night with the help of his trusty sidekick Officer Pterodactyl.
Critique: This is an easy read for young readers. Detective Dinosaur is sort of clueless, but he does manage to solve the mystery. The book is cute though!
Craft Element: After reading the book you could have the students come up with their own mystery story. show more They could write about it and draw pictures throughout their story. show less

Age: Primary (early readers)
Genre: Fantasy early chapter book
Media: Watercolors
Review/Critique: Two dinosaurs solve three different mysteries, all with silly endings. The fantasy world isn't developed much, but it is a series so the author could count on previous knowledge/experience to build up the world. The dinosaurs are personified as police that are pretty silly and not great at their job. Overall an easy and fun early chapter book.

A nice tale about an odd friendship paring. I would love to read this cute book to my class.