Dinosaur Dreams is one of the titles in Allan Ahlberg's iconic children's picture book series about skeletons, Funnybones. Despite being set in a dark dark house, this brightly coloured book is perfect for early readers! The big skeleton and the little skeleton are being chased by dinosaurs . . . in their dreams! Luckily dogs can dream too - and save the day. 'There can be few families in the British Isles who do not possess at least one well-thumbed Ahlberg' - Independent on Sunday Allan Ahlberg has published over 100 children's books and with his late wife Janet, created such award-winning children's picture books, including Peepo!, Each Peach Pear Plum and the Kate Greenaway Medal winning The Jolly Postman. Other titles in the Funnybones series include Funnybones, Mystery Tour, The Ghost Train, The Pet Shop, Bumps in the Night, The Black Cat, Skeleton Crew, Give the Dog a Bone and A Brilliant Bone Rattling Collection, all of which are available from Puffin.
As a child Allan was born in Croydon, but grew up in Oldbury in the Black Country. He says that if he hadn't grown up to be a writer, he would have loved to have been a soccer player.
As an adult Allan always dreamed of being a writer, but tried his hand at many other jobs before he achieved his ambition. He was a postman, grave-digger, plumber's mate and teacher - it was teaching that gave him such sharp insights into the minds of children, and enabled him to write his perfectly observed poetry about primary school life
As an artist Allan has collaborated with many illustrators, including Andre Amstutz, Gillian Tyler and Katharine McEwen, as well as his late wife, Janet Ahlberg (nee Hall) and his daughter Jessica Ahlberg. He has won numerous awards for his books including, the Kurt Maschler Award in 1986, The Children's Book Award in 1987, the Blue Peter Book Award 2001, and The Children's Book Award: Books for Young Children award 2002.
You can see Allan reading from Peepo! in this video:
