Beyond the Dinosaurs: Monsters of the Air and Sea

Reviewed by Evan Weldon (age 6) for Reader Views (6/08) "Beyond the Dinosaurs: Monsters of the Air and Sea" by Charlotte Lewis Brown is about sea creatures and flying creatures that lived at the time of the dinosaurs and "were just as strange and wonderful as any dinosaur." The book talks about eleven different creatures: four bird-like ones and seven that spent most of their time in the water. One of my favorite creatures from the book was the Pterodaustro, a flying creature that used its long thin teeth to filter sea water and trap tiny sea creatures that the Pterodaustro ate. I also found the Microraptor very interesting. It has neat claws on its wings that it used to climb trees. It couldn't really fly but used its wings to glide to the ground. The illustrations were good, but not the best; most of the drawings show animals attacking or about to eat something. It is kind of hard to tell how big some of the creatures would have been in real life. This book gave a little information about a lot of different prehistoric creatures. It might get kids interested in going to the library to learn more about some of these interesting animals. I liked "Beyond the Dinosaurs: Monsters of the Air and Sea" by Charlotte Lewis Brown and will read it again (all by myself!).