Meet the Shortlist 2024: When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Zehra Hicks (Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

Raarrrrr - it’s time to take a closer look at the next title in our shortlist line-up: When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Zehra Hicks (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books).

This ROAR-some adventure takes us back to prehistoric times and well and truly stomped its way onto the shortlist. Please read on to find out more!

What is the book about?

Set back in the days …well, when dinosaurs walked the Earth, this is a hilarious picture-book about Smallasaurus, who enjoys a plant-based diet, and Badasaurus, who likes to eat small dinosaurs who enjoy a plant-based diet. What could possibly happen next?

What our judges said:

'This story is really impactful for a younger audience, and reading it to a group would be brilliant.’

'Very funny, with lovely illustrations that are drawn for everyone, and a simple and clever story’. 

‘We love that readers don't need to be an expert on dinosaurs to enjoy this.’

‘You could read this book again and again.’

And to illustrate (sorry) the point, here’s a special drawing from Zehra Hicks celebrating this book’s place on our shortlist! Thank you so much, Zehra!

Please read on to find out more about the books’ creators, and to read their Q&As (thank you so much Sean and Zehra for so kindly answering!)

About Sean:

Sean Taylor is an award-winning author of over 50 books for young readers of many different ages. As well as writing, he has many years’ experience visiting schools, where he works with poetry and storytelling to encourage young people to write themselves. He lives with his wife and two sons in Bristol. www.seantaylorstories.com

Sean’s Q&A answers:

What is the picture book that have you enjoyed reading with someone else most, and why?

There are so very many picture books that are a delight to read with others for so very many different reasons. But I’ll chose Frog is a Hero by Dutch author/illustrator Max Velthuijs. His series of picture books about Frog and friends is dramatic, funny, truthful, satisfying and simple all at once. My kids were drawn into the small-child-friendly world of these stories, so we read them together again and again. And I sense that their engagement with the small-child-friendly difficulties explored in the Frog stories is still active and helpful inside them, even though they’re teenagers now.

What's your favourite thing about each character in your shortlisted book?

When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth features a number of big, hungry dinosaurs. They’re antagonists who wander into the tale and make it a page-turning adventure. The focal point of the story is a little dinosaur called Smallasaurus. And my favourite thing about her is her littleness. She’s a young child, mainly interested in having breakfast. And, like any young child, she’s learning about the big, wide (wild) world. Vincent Van Gogh said: “An artist needn’t be a clergyman or a church warden, but he certainly must have a warm heart for his fellow men.” And that’s a clue to what I like about Smallasaurus’s littleness, and also a clue to what makes a good picture book story. You start with warm heartedness for young children. 

Which picture book would you give as a gift to your main character, and why?

I would give Smallasaurus The Sea Monster by Chris Wormwell. It’s an enchantingly beautiful picture book, both visually and narratively. Those are reasons enough to gift it to anyone. But Smallasaurus gets it because she keeps on finding herself in danger from big dinosaurs coming out of the blue! And The Sea Monster has a deeply reassuring message about fear, and big things coming of the blue. I think she’ll enjoy her breakfast of sweet and juicy ferns all the more if she’s read The Sea Monster the night before.

About Zehra:

Zehra Hicks is an award-winning children's book author and illustrator whose books have been translated in over 20 languages around the world. Zehra does love a bit of humour, so most of her picture books are guaranteed to make you chuckle. Zehra is also a tutor at Chelsea College of Arts, where she completed a short course in Book Illustration in 2009. Since then, she has been highly commended for the Macmillan Prize for Illustration, winner of the Heart of Hawick Award, named Lovereading4Kids Debut of the Year in 2011, shortlisted for the Read It Again! Cambridgeshire Children's Picture Book Award and nominated for the Kate Greenaway.

 Zehra’s Q&A answers:

The picture book I enjoyed reading the most, hmmm, is tricky to choose! But it must have to be You Choose by Nick Sharratt and Pippa Goodhart. The proof is in how dog-eared it is! I read it again and again to my children, and it was a book we all loved. I loved how it created conversations between us and how interactive it was, spotting new things every time. It’s funny too. 

My favourite thing about each character in my short-listed book is the names the author, Sean Taylor, gives them: Smallasaurus, Badasaurus and Worseasaurus – you can’t get more simply descriptive than that! And how he tells us how big (or small) their brains are – being as small as a walnut or a peanut – the brains getting smaller as the -sauruses get bigger which adds to the comedy of their characters. It was very much the comedy of these characters that made me immediately jump at Sean’s text thinking - YES! I REALLY want to illustrate this book!

The picture book I would give as a gift to Badasaurus could be a book about being less greedy and more kind, so I think he could learn from the book Kind, written by Alison Green, illustrated by lots of wonderful (and kind) illustrators. Or perhaps T-Veg by Smriti Halls and Katherina Manolessou - where who knows, this book might inspire him to be a vegetarian.

Thank you so much, Zehra and Sean!