Overview
Did you know that the first dinosaur fossil ever found in the United States was discovered in New Jersey? Or that the Great Plains used to be swarming with swimming sea monsters? Readers can imagine what was in their own backyards seventy million years ago as they read this one-of-a-kind dino adventure.
Unlike other dinosaur books, bestselling nonfiction author Hugh Brewster’s text focuses only on species found in North America. Complete with a timeline, a glossary, a bibliography, an index, and a list of museums and national parks, Dinosaurs in Your Backyard encourages young readers to imagine what their surroundings were like millions of years ago.
F&P level: T
Synopsis
Did you know that the first dinosaur fossil ever found in the United States was discovered in New Jersey? Or that the Great Plains used to be swarming with swimming sea monsters? Readers can imagine what was in their own backyards seventy million years ago as they read this one-of-a-kind dino adventure.
Unlike other dinosaur books, bestselling nonfiction author Hugh Brewster’s text focuses only on species found in North America. Complete with a timeline, a glossary, a bibliography, an index, and a list of museums and national parks, Dinosaurs in Your Backyard encourages young readers to imagine what their surroundings were like millions of years ago.
Publishers Weekly
Akin to The Eleventh Hour, this über-puzzle of a picture book asks readers to crack codes and find hidden pictures, all in aid of solving a mystery relayed in rhyming quatrains. Young Bertie Badger arrives at the opulent country home of his grandfather, "a conjurer of note" known as Gadzooks the Great, anticipating an extraordinary magic show, but-horrors!-Gadzooks's and the other performers' props have disappeared. Readers could simply hunt for the missing objects, which Base conceals within elaborately detailed paintings, but then they would miss out on the tricky fun of mastering several codes also embedded in the book-not to mention that finding those hidden pictures without benefit of the encoded clues isn't easy, not even for alums of Where's Waldo?For the impatient, Base supplies a huge hint; where Eleventh Hour forced the desperate to break a seal to get answers, readers need not alter anything to avail themselves of help, making this volume a cinch to share. A set of bonus challenges will keep kids (and older siblings) poring closely over the pages for weeks, enthralled. Ages 5-10. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Akin to The Eleventh Hour, this über-puzzle of a picture book asks readers to crack codes and find hidden pictures, all in aid of solving a mystery relayed in rhyming quatrains. Young Bertie Badger arrives at the opulent country home of his grandfather, "a conjurer of note" known as Gadzooks the Great, anticipating an extraordinary magic show, but-horrors!-Gadzooks's and the other performers' props have disappeared. Readers could simply hunt for the missing objects, which Base conceals within elaborately detailed paintings, but then they would miss out on the tricky fun of mastering several codes also embedded in the book-not to mention that finding those hidden pictures without benefit of the encoded clues isn't easy, not even for alums of Where's Waldo?For the impatient, Base supplies a huge hint; where Eleventh Hour forced the desperate to break a seal to get answers, readers need not alter anything to avail themselves of help, making this volume a cinch to share. A set of bonus challenges will keep kids (and older siblings) poring closely over the pages for weeks, enthralled. Ages 5-10. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Children's Literature -
After a brief introduction about historical dinosaur locations in North America, Brewster skips back and forth between dinosaur periods more or less by interest-T-Rex and "Sea Monsters" taking pride of place. Having assigned marine reptiles such as the mosasaur to what was once the "Western Inland Sea," but is now Kansas within the Great Plains, it becomes harder and harder for the reader to visibly pin down other finds. Since the book's primary claim for distinction from other books of its genre is pinpointing the physical location of fossilized finds, using more maps for discovery sites would have been useful. Backmatter includes a timeline, a pronunciation guide, and a "Where to See Dinosaurs" listing that includes museums and parks in both the U.S. and Canada, as well as an index and selected bibliography. Reviewer: Kathleen KarrSchool Library Journal
Gr 3-6
An eye-catching look at North America's "backyard" bonanza of prehistoric reptilian residents. Accompanied by Barnard's bright, realistic, action-filled illustrations, Brewster's conversational text is loaded with the data sought by young researchers and dino lovers alike. Maps, a general time line, and a pronunciation guide to those tongue-tangling nomenclatures are included, as is a list of U.S. and Canadian museums and parks (with Web site addresses) having nifty collections of dino-fossils, such as Drumheller (Alberta, Canada) and Bozeman (Montana). Slender, colorful, informative, and...about dinosaurs.-Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY