Sea Monsters

Children's Literature - Elizabeth Young

Today's mission is to explore an underwater world where reports of prehistoric sea life still exist. All systems are "go"—your apparatus is in working order, you have learned how to handle the submersible, your camera is ready, and the latest known information about underwater life has been loaded into your dinoPad. Your first encounter is with a creature the size of a tractor tire coming right at you. This is just the beginning of your underwater adventure, and not the last time you will be amazed and frightened (at the same time!) with creatures that lurk in the depths of the sea. Moving along you will find plesiosaurs, tylosaurus, stethacanthus, and the "monster" of the sea: liopleurodon; among other ferocious sea creatures. What is that? A crack in your submersible? Water coming in? A close encounter of the shark kind leaves you scrambling for the surface, but not without a last glimpse at the long necked tanystropheus as it snatches a meal on your way to safety. It has been a long, yet memorable day! As with others in the "Prehistoric Safari" series, this is full of excellent colorful illustration—some that could almost be perceived as photographs. Following the informative text are a timeline for these beasts, a practical Glossary, suggestions for additional readings, and a well done Index. Dinophiles will flock to this series, and especially this title, as the creatures included are not always the popular or common ones. Reviewer: Elizabeth Young

School Library Journal

Gr 3–6—Visual excitement abounds in this unusual approach to nonfiction. Facts are conveyed through a fantasy journey into prehistoric times. Readers, who are addressed in the second person ("You are about to parachute from a plane down to a secret island-an island full of huge prehistoric monsters."), encounter a multitude of fascinating creatures, described in short bursts of text augmented by text boxes of statistics and a chart on the closing pages that will make clear to students that the featured creatures existed millions of year apart and are now extinct. Characterized more by breadth than depth, the books would be only marginally useful for research. Nonetheless, their adventure-packed, imagination-encouraging framework and realistic, colorful illustrations will pique interest, and the thorough list of further readings and websites encourages additional investigation.