Best Book of Dinosaurs

Children's Literature - Cheryl Peterson

This fact-filled book begins with dinosaur babies hatching from their shells and describes the growth of baby dinosaurs. It next describes how the various dinosaurs lived in herds, and has separate sections on plant eaters and meat eaters. The process of extinction is discussed and a section on how fossils are made is included. The text is accompanied by detailed color illustrations with captions. Also included is a glossary and an index with a pronunciation guide for dinosaur names. An excellent home or school resource for the early elementary grades.

Children's Literature

The four illustrators who worked on this book show their respect and appreciation for this subject with their beautifully-rendered illustrations. The scenes are done in a realistic style with lots of atmospheric details like dazzling sunshine or a misty forest. The dinosaurs' skin and scales glisten. The scenes are visually exciting with unusual viewpoints. In some images, the dinosaurs are positioned as if they are coming out of the picture toward the reader. The illustration of a pack of Deinonychuses attacking a Sauropelta during a lightening storm is very dramatic. The team of illustrators have done an outstanding job on this book which really tries hard to live up to its name. Great care is given to the topics to make it accessible for young readers. The topics covered include dinosaur babies, bringing up the young, living in herds, plant-eaters, meat-eaters, hunting, group attacks, escape, extinction, fossil remains, and how to understand the fossils. Egg size, head formations, total length, teeth, mouth, footprints and beak shapes are all compared and contrasted. A complete index with pronunciation guide and a carefully- thought-out glossary are in the back. 2005, Kingfisher, Ages 5 to 9.
—Sally J. K. Davies

School Library Journal

Gr 3-5--Two lavishly illustrated introductions. Bugs highlights the major ways in which insects and spiders differ and then briefly describes some outstanding physical or behavioral characteristics of about two dozen arthropods. The life cycles of honeybees, dragonflies, and butterflies are also outlined. The second book briefly discusses the general characteristics of several groups of dinosaurs and mentions some special traits of about two dozen species. Brightly colored acrylic paintings of varying sizes appear on every page of both titles. Although the books are clearly written, the information is oversimplified and some important facts are omitted. For instance, in Bugs, the book notes, "Wasps live in colonies, too"; however, not all species are social insects, some are solitary wasps. In Dinosaurs, several chapters include fictionalized scenes. Descriptions of attacks by meat-eaters on plant-eaters are sensationalized. More thorough introductions to these subjects are widely available, such as Robert Snedden's What Is an Insect? (Sierra Club, 1993) and Jennifer Dewey's Spiders Near and Far (Dutton, 1993; o.p.); both include excellent illustrations. Miriam Schlien's Discovering Dinosaur Babies (S & S, 1991) and Steve Parker's Did Dinosaurs Lay Eggs? (Benchmark, 1997) offer lucid explanations of how recent discoveries have effected our understanding of what dinosaurs looked liked and how they behaved.--Karey Wehner, San Francisco Public Library