Children's "Dinosaur" Series Author Visits Walnut Elementary

The following news release is courtesy of the Walnut Valley Unified School District.

Children’s author Bob Shea visited Walnut Elementary School on October 1.

About 200 excited 1st and 2nd graders gathered in the multipurpose room ready to hear his funny stories. 

The youngsters wiggled and giggled as he read two of his popular children’s books Dinosaur vs. Bedtime and Dinosaur vs. the Potty.

“Here’s the thing, roaring gets really loud so we’ll do a medium-sized roar.”

So the kids proudly demonstrated their roaring skills for the author. 

Their first attempt was a bit loud, so they roared a little softer the second time and got it just right.

Then they loved roaring on cue as Shea animatedly told the story of the rambunctious little red dinosaur who takes on different challenges during the day like a big slide, spaghetti and the dreading talking to grown ups. 

He wins each with the “ROAR!” and a booming “DINOSAUR WINS”” Until his biggest challenge BEDTIME!

The children were familiar with Shea’s books that librarian Debbie Palmer read to them.

And just like the dinosaur, they tried to keep their enthusiasm to a mild roar too. 

Shea even showed them a new secret book.

“Don’t tell anybody I showed you this book.  Do you want to see it?” he said. 

“Yes!” they cheered.

And he made them promise they wouldn’t tell anyone they’d seen it before it hits the shelves. 

“This book is a mystery. If you figure it out don’t yell it out because I want other people to enjoy the mystery at the end,” Shea said.

“When I make a book it’s not done the first time. I do sketches as I figure out the story and drawings to see if they work. This is a sloppy copy,” he explained.

“Do you think it was the monster?” Shea asked when he finished the story titled A Delicious Mystery.

“Yes!” the children answered. 

Shea went to a drawing board to demonstrate how he turns simple jellybean shape into a dinosaur.

“And he needs some teeth. Does he have shark teeth?” Shea asked  the group. 

“Yeah!” the children answered.

“And do I put the legs up here?” he asked pointed to the comical head. 

“No!” the kids replied.

Second grader Stephanie Lim got to assist as Shea drew the unicorn from his new book Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great. 

She chose the colors from a bag of giant-sized markers for the talented illustrator.

Student Reed Bevens shared that his favorite part of the assembly was seeing see how Shea used his creativity to draw on the big paper.

The special author's visit was courtesy of Mrs. Nelson’s Toy & Book Store in La Verne. Bob Shea has written and illustrated over a dozen picture books including the popular Dinosaur vs. Bedtime and the cult favorite Big Plans illustrated by Lane Smith. His characters and animations have appeared on Nick Jr, Playhouse Disney and PBS Kids.