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When my son was three, he could work my phone better than I could. Books, he had no use for. He would take one, flip it once, and reach for a screen again. A few of them he tore straight down the middle first. If you have a three-year-old, you know the exact sound.
This is the story of how that boy ended up with a whole picture book series for preschoolers written just for him. It is also what he taught me, page by page, about what a small child actually needs from a series. His name is on none of it. His fingerprints are on all of it.
Key Takeaways
- I wrote the Kitty & Dino series for my own son, who was behind on English and glued to a screen.
- Preschoolers connect with pictures first. Colorful pages come before words.
- A series works for this age when the characters and the routine stay the same, so only a small part changes each time.
- All 43 books stand alone, for ages 3 to 8, and they are free to read with Kindle Unlimited.
The problem no book on our shelf could fix
My son learned English at school and spoke Sinhala at home. He spent his days with his grandparents, and Sinhala is the language of that house. English was the odd one out, the language he only really met in the classroom. So he started to fall behind the other kids.
One day his teacher called my wife. He was taking too long with English, she said, and the screen had to go. We couldn’t just take the phone away. Any parent who has tried that knows how it ends. But we could try to put something better in his hands. My wife said it plainly. We need bedtime stories.
I write for a living, so I figured this part would be easy. It was not. We bought a stack of English picture books, and not one of them stuck. He would sit for a page, drift off, and reach for the screen again. Most little kids meet a book with their hands before their eyes, and he was no different. Nothing was connecting.
So I wrote a story that was actually his
I stopped buying books and started writing one. I began with a boy and a dog. Nothing. I tried a boy and a talking cat, and something small flickered. Then I paid closer attention to what he already loved. Cats, all day long. And dinosaurs. So I gave him both. A red cat named Kitty who can call the wind and the water, and a green dinosaur named Dino who can grow plants out of bare ground. I handed them a little magic on purpose. A child who believes a fairy lives in a tree is a child who is learning to imagine a whole world, and I wanted to protect that.
The first book was Kitty and Dino Help Sprinkles the Cheetah, about a cheetah who is sure nobody is coming to his birthday. That one worked. The next night, my son didn’t ask for a video. He asked for another story. I have not really stopped writing since.
What to look for in a book series for preschoolers
Writing for my own preschooler taught me things no guide could. The first one caught me off guard. At the start he barely listened to the words. What he did was study the pictures, and then flip back a page to catch something he had missed. The picture was the door. The story came after.
So I made the pages colorful and full, because that is where a small child steps in. Get the pictures right and a preschooler leans in close. Miss them, and no amount of good writing will hold him. If you are weighing up any picture book series for preschoolers, that is the first thing I would check. Do the pictures pull a child in on their own.
The second lesson took longer to see. My son settled into the books once they became predictable. Same two friends. Same kind of magic. Same shape to the day. Kitty and Dino show up, they find an animal with a problem, they help. Only a small piece changes each time, the animal and the trouble it is in. That little bit of new, wrapped in a lot of familiar, was exactly what he wanted.
That is what a series of books for preschoolers can give that a shelf of unrelated titles can’t. Characters he already trusts. A rhythm he can predict. A safe frame, with just enough new inside it to stay interesting. It is also why he could open any book in the set and feel at home on the first page.
How the series is built, and why you can start anywhere
Every book carries the same two friends and one gentle lesson. Kindness, courage, teamwork, believing in yourself. The animal changes, the lesson changes, Kitty and Dino stay put. Penny the Penguin is too scared to make the big jump. Harvey the Hippo loves ballet and gets teased for it. Leo the Lion isn’t the king of the jungle at all. He teaches music and plays the flute. Gordon the Rooster gets a second chance at life on a farm.
Because each story stands on its own, there is no reading order to keep track of. You won’t have to explain what happened in an earlier book. Your child hasn’t missed a thing by starting at book twenty instead of book one. Hand him Bramble the Bear tonight and Sunny the Parrot tomorrow, and both work fine. That was the whole idea.
See it on Amazon →
How to start, no strategy required
You don’t need a plan for this. Two easy ways in.
Let your child pick by animal. Show him three or four covers and let him point. Preschoolers know exactly which animal they want, even when they can’t tell you why.
Or pick by what is going on at home. A child starting swim lessons might land on Penny the Penguin. A child learning to share might do better with a story about teamwork. Either way works, because every book stands on its own.
All 43 are on Amazon, and they are free to read with Kindle Unlimited if you’re a member. Leo the Lion carries a 5-star rating so far. Though at this stage I trust one sign more than any rating. Whether my son asks for the same book again the next night.
