Danny and the Dinosaur


Danny and the Dinosaur is a popular children's book by Syd Hoff, 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.
These are the other sequels:
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 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. The other children get to ride the dinosaur too. 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 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. Finally, Danny and the dinosaur were alone. The dinosaur says goodbye to Danny. But when Danny asks the dinosaur if he can come and be with him, 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, 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, Danny thinks about one of the things first stated in the story. He wants a dinosaur for a pet. But he, realizes a dinosaur is too big to live at his house. A dinosaur is too big to live at a house. 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.