Our Best Dinosaur Fiction Books for School Kids

We love books about dinosaurs here in the Rainy Day Mum household and have loved reading our selection of dinosaur books for toddlers and preschoolers. But, now we have school kids and they still like reading fiction books about dinosaurs so we’ve put together our favourite Dinosaur Books for older kids. Pick out ones that you think your child will enjoy or select a few and add to the bookshelf if you are following on with our Magic Tree House Book Series then these would be great to read around the first book Dinosaurs Before Dark with your child.

Dinosaur Books for School Kids

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We have included a mix of fiction books with some that are very factual as well as some that are fantasy. This is because of our own experience where some kids prefer to read fact books and other stories. Although we’ve tried to give ages for the different books, these are a guide and check out the books yourselves you know the ability of your young reader and some may be good to read aloud together, others for you to read and others for solo reading.

Dinosaur Books for Kids of All Ages To Read After Visiting the Museum

In How the Dinosaur Got to the Museum by Jessie Hartland you are taken on a 145 million year journey of the Diplodocus, from it’s time on earth to how it arrived in the halls of the Smithsonian museum.

Kimmy is the dinosaur expert in her class and when she heads to the Natural History Museum she shares her knowledge and says she wants to be a palaeontologist. But, some of her class question whether a girl can be a palaeontologist. Discover what happens next in The Dinosaur Expert (Mr Tiffin’s Classroom Series) by Margaret McNamara.

Books About Palaeontologists and Fossil Hunters

These 4 books we have picked as they tell the stories of some of the famous fossil hunters and palaeontologists.

Two of the books feature Mary Anning a British fossil hunter who discovered some of the first fossils of Ichthyosaurs in the UK.

Stone Girl Bone Girl: The Story of Mary Anning is a fantastic read aloud and tells the story of how the young Mary Anning discovered the sea monster fossil.

If you have a reluctant reader that wants to know more about the discoveries made by Mary Anning or one that likes reading graphic novels then The Fossil Girl by Catherine Brighton is ideal retelling the story of her life and her amazing discovery of the Ichthyosaur in the cliff in the UK.

Another famous female fossil hunter is Mary Leakey who worked in Tanzania. In Fossil Huntress: Mary Leakey, Palaeontologist by Andi Diehn you find the story of this important fossil hunter with STEM experiments. This would be ideal to read alongside The Dinosaur Expert above and have a go at some of the experiments included.

Who discovered the T-Rex and other fossil dinosaurs in the American Museum of Natural History? Well in Barnum’s Bones: How Barnum Brown Discovered the Most Famous Dinosaur in the World by Tracey Fern you find out.

Dinosaur Fiction Books for Beginner Readers

There are many beginning reading books that focus on dinosaurs – we’ve selected 2 but if you find that dinosaurs are a way to get your young reader encouraged to read then check out Amazon as there are plenty more.

Our picks from the selection are Meet Teddy Rex! (Dino School) by Bonnie Williams and Dancing Dinos Go to School (Step into Reading) by Sally Lucas.

Your beginner readers will love some of these dinosaur crafts and activities why not check them out.

Dinosaur Books for 6 – 8-Year-Olds

As your child moves from a beginner reader to more confident then these books will grow with them.

As we are hosting our own Book Based Activities Series for Kids inspired by the Magic Tree House Books Series we couldn’t put together a book list on Dinosaur Books for readers without including Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne. The first book in the series and the first we have created a topic around.

If you have a child that is beginning to read chapter books and would love to combine activities based on the themes of the books then why not read along with us and the Magic Tree House Series and join our newsletter to get activities to create, learn and explore the themes every other week in your inbox. Just sign up below to join and you will get your welcome message and the first activities to do with Dinosaurs Before Dark in your inbox very soon.

Again like the early reader books, there are plenty of early chapter books that are great for 6 – 8-year-olds to read. We’ve picked a series that our eldest enjoyed and then 2 books from other series that feature dinosaurs.

Dinosaur Cove by Rex Stone features two kids that find a door to the prehistoric world and head there to have many adventures in Dinosaur Cove. The first book in the series Attack of the Tyrannosaurs is a good introduction and you can judge whether your young reader enjoys them or not.

The first in the series of Secret Agent Jack Stalwart is titled Escape of the Deadly Dinosaur. This is a fantasy chapter series in which in the first book a student for their science fair project combines his dogs DNA with that of a HUGE terrifying dinosaur that then goes on a rampage around NYC. A fun read that my kids enjoyed.

Along the lines of the Magic Tree House Series, the Branches Books by Scholastic take a time-travelling duo to different times. In Dodging Dinosaurs they must return an egg to its nest whilst staying away from their arch-nemesis and the dinosaurs walking the earth.

Dinosaur Stories for Older Readers

Fans of the Captain Underpants series will love The Adventures of Ook and Gluk; Kung-Fu Cavemen From the Future (Captain Underpants) by Dav Pilkey the same author. It’s as silly as the captain underpants series and if your kids love the humour there they will love this too!

In the republished The Enormous Egg by Oliver Butterworth the impossible happens and a chicken hatches a dinosaur egg! This is a classic and well worth reading together with your child or if they are a confident reader and interested in dinosaurs independently.

For more reluctant readers or those that enjoy graphics novels Dinosaur Empire! (Earth Before Us #1) Journey through the Mesozoic Era by Abby Howard is great. It goes through the 3 periods of “The Age of Reptiles” or the Mesozoic Era and is a good combination of fact and fiction.

If you enjoy reading classic literature together then there is one dinosaur-themed book that you can’t miss. The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In this 1912 series that was turned into a book, Sir Arthus Conan Doyle’s characters discover a fabulous Lost World in the Amazon Jungle full of prehistoric creatures and more.

More Reading Recommendations For the Magic Tree House Book Series

To accompany book #2 The Knight at Dawn we have a list of fiction books that span the Middle Ages where the book is set. Fiction Books for School Kids Set in the Middle Ages.

Book #3 Mummies in the Morning is set in Ancient Egypt and we have a set of Ancient Egyptian Fiction Books to read alongside this book.