Danny and the Dinosaur
Danny and the Dinosaur is a popular children's book by Syd Hoff,[1] first published by Harper & Brothers in 1958. It has sold over six million copies and has been translated into a dozen languages. The book inspired six other sequels by Syd Hoff.
 Cover of the 1958 hardcover edition. | |
| Author | Syd Hoff |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Syd Hoff |
| Cover artist | Syd Hoff |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's literature |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers |
Publication date | 1958 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 64 |
| ISBN | 978-0-06-022466-0 |
| OCLC | 13459675 |
| Preceded by | Patty's Pet |
| Followed by | Sammy the Seal |
These are the other sequels:
- Happy Birthday, Danny and the Dinosaur (1985)
- Danny and the Dinosaur Go to Camp (1996)
- Danny and the Dinosaur: Too Tall (2014)
- Danny and the Dinosaur and the New Puppy (2015)
- Danny and the Dinosaur and the Girl Next Door (2016)
- Danny and the Dinosaur: School Days (2017)
It also won the distinction of "New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year".
Danny and the Dinosaur is designated an I Can Read! Book.
Plot
The story opens up with a young boy named Danny going to a science museum. He sees Indians, bears, Eskimos, guns, and swords. Finally, he immediately gets drawn to the dinosaur exhibit and would be delighted to find a living dinosaur. He thinks that the dinosaurs are not real. Really, at the museum, the dinosaurs are only models. Then he says he thinks it would be nice to play with one. One of the dinosaurs come up to Danny. And the voice belongs to one of the dinosaurs. The voice turns out to be a real dinosaur. The dinosaur says, "And I think it would be nice to play with you". Both agree to play with each other, and Danny rides out of the museum on the dinosaur's neck.
Danny and his dinosaur friend, they embark on an adventure-filled day, including:
- the dinosaur pretending to be a car (to confuse the dog that he is a vehicle)
- the dinosaur confusing a building for a rock
- attending a baseball game
- pretending to be a boat on a lake
- eating ice cream instead of grass
- going to the zoo (All the people at the zoo came running to see Danny and the dinosaur; thinking a dinosaur is a display at the zoo. The people did not get their chance to see any of the zoo animals, such as the lions, the elephants, the monkeys, the seals, the giraffes, and the hippos. Although Danny and the dinosaur try to see the zoo animals, they get themselves thrown out of the zoo by a zoo man because the people are distracted and see Danny and the dinosaur rather than the zoo animals. The zoo man begs Danny and the dinosaur to leave the zoo so the zoo animals can be looked at by everyone else who are trying to see them.)
- playing games, especially hide and seek, with other children
The dinosaur is well-intentioned throughout the story, for he helps a lady cross the street, takes Danny across a river and lets the children use him as a slide. The dinosaur is also a celebrity, as the illustrations show hundreds of people leave the zoo to play with Danny.
Pretty soon, Danny meets his friends (possibly maybe school friends for some of them and friends from Danny's neighborhood too). The other children get to ride the dinosaur too (when they see Danny riding on the dinosaur). Then, Danny and the children all play with the dinosaur for the rest of the day. Finally, they end with a game called hide and seek. The children and the dinosaur take turns hiding. The dinosaur finds the children several times, but then there is no place else for him to hide in the neighborhood. In the last part of the game, Danny hatches an idea to make believe (pretend) like they can't find the dinosaur. Indeed, imagining that Danny and the children can't find the dinosaur does work. At last, when they "can't find him", they give up. But the dinosaur is really there. Then when the dinosaur finds the children at that, he says, "Here I am!". Then Danny and his friends all cheer that the dinosaur wins. Danny says, "The dinosaur wins! Hooray for the dinosaur! We could not find him! He fooled us!".
At the end of the story, all the other children, return home at sunset (with Danny and the dinosaur waving goodbye). Finally, Danny and the dinosaur were alone. The dinosaur says goodbye to Danny. But when Danny (hoping that he could keep "his dinosaur buddy" as a pet) asks the dinosaur if he can come and be with him (and says, "We could have fun forever"), the dinosaur says "No" to Danny and explains his reason. He says, "The best I have had in a hundred million years. But now, I must go back to the museum. They need me there". After telling Danny about how the museum needs him, Danny (disappointed but eventually obedient about the dinosaur's words), says goodbye to him. Although Danny knows that all good things must always come to an end, he still knows that he and the dinosaur can some time meet again and play another day. Then Danny and the dinosaur shake hands before the dinosaur leaves back for the museum.
After watching until the long tail was out of sight, Danny went home alone. On the way home (on his own), Danny (along the way) thinks about one of the things first stated in the story. He wants a dinosaur for a pet. But he (even though he wants to keep him as a pet), realizes a dinosaur (a pet that size) is too big to live at his house. A dinosaur is too big to live at a house (even for the backyard). Danny says, "Oh well. We don't have room for a pet that size anyway. But we did have a wonderful day”. After he concludes his line, he goes back inside the house.