Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs is a series of children's books written and illustrated by British authors Ian Whybrow and Adrian Reynolds about a 5-year-old boy named Harry, who always carries with him a bucket with six toy dinosaurs that he found in his attic one day. The six dinosaurs are a Tyrannosaurus, a Triceratops, an Apatosaurus, a Pteranodon, a Scelidosaurus, and a Stegosaurus. While Harry regularly interacts and plays with the dinosaurs, they only appear to be toys to everyone else, most prominently Harry's mother and grandmother "Nana", his best friends Charley and Jack, and his teenage sister Sam. The first book, simply titled Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs, was published in 1999, and was followed by 13 other books originally published until 2007.
In 2005, the books were adapted into an animated Preschool Show of the same name; see here for the page for the TV series.
In 2011, Ian Whybrow brought back Harry and his dinosaurs with a series of junior chapter books titled Harry and the Dinosaurs, in which a now school-aged Harry is reunited with the original six toy dinosaurs after having stopped playing with them when he started to feel he was too old for them. This time however, Harry also has a set of plastic dinosaur cards on his key ring that he can use to summon additional dinosaurs to help him and his friends. Whybrow even published a 15th entry to the original series in 2012 to celebrate the return and rebirth of the series.
Harry and His Bucket Full of Dinosaurs provides examples of:
- Cool Old Lady: Harry's Nana is very playful and good at giving advice, so she's popular with Harry.
- Cuddle Bug: Soggy the octopus loves giving hugs.
- Disappeared Dad: Harry's dad and his mom's dad are never seen. One of the chapters books later reveals that Harry's mom is a widow.
- The Noun and the Noun: Some of the books' titles follow this pattern:
- Harry and the Bucket Full of Dinosaurs
- Harry and the Robots
- Harry and the Snow King
- Harry and the Dinosaurs and the Bucketful of Stories
- Token Black Friend: Charley is the only black character in the series, and who also serves as Harry's only non-dino friend.
- Tomboyish Name: Harry's big sister is called "Sam". Also, his best friend is called "Charley".
