Dinosaurs!

Not being a dinosaur expert, I found this book to be an excellent non-fiction introduction for my preschooler. It briefly describes the history of paleontology and each main group of dinosaurs. Major questions that your preschooler might have --- what do dinosaurs eat? what happened to them? what do dinosaurs look like? --- are all answered in a manner comprehensible to the target audience. Unlike other non-fiction texts, the author fills her pages with short, 1 to 2 sentences of information. Unfamiliar words (such as paleontologist) are defined within the illustrations. The only reason I did not give the book 5 stars was the illustrations. For a non-fiction text, the pictures seem too simple --- sketches filled with what I think are watercolors. Despite this complaint, my preschooler loves this book and she herself has no issues with the pictures.

If you're thinking about buying this book, you probably have a child in your life that who can roll the names Tyrannosaurus, Edmontosaurus, and Giganotosaurus off his or her tongue with ease, but does he or she know much about them? This book begins with the definition of a dinosaur (it means "fearfully great lizard") and then has a marvelous, colorful two-page spread with assorted sized dinosaurs. Fossils and the role of paleontologists are discussed, including the fact that the paleontologist "divided nonbird dinosaurs into seven groups." Watch out! Here comes the Gibbons parade of dinosaurs! This is what you will see: Prosauropods (pro SOR uh pods) ... Theropods (THIR uh pods) ... Sauropods (SOR o pods) ... Stegosaurs (STEG uh sors) ... Ankylosaurs (ang kile SORS) ... Ceratopsians (ser ra TOP see uns) and Ornithopods (Or nih thuh pods). Each of these seven groups has a hopping bopping crowd of dinosaurs on their page(s) and a brief description of what they were like. The book even talks about their extinction. Here comes that meteorite! Gail Gibbons's books are always bright, colorful and, in this case, historically accurate. According to this book, Carl Mehling, a paleontologist from the American Museum of Natural History, reviewed the text. Each dinosaur name has the pronunciation in parentheses below the word (you may wish to practice before reading it out loud.) This is the best "fun" dinosaur book for the younger child I've seen in some time. Your dinosauraholic is going to love this one!

Massive in size, lizard-like, and armed with horns and teeth; it's no wonder dinosaurs capture children's imaginations. "Dinosaurs!" is a book to educate young readers about these massive lizards from millions of years ago, filled with full color illustrations and fun facts. Sure to please any young dinosaur lover, "Dinosaurs!" should be in the science shelves of every community library's children's collection.

This book is a classic for all young dinosaur fans. When my kids were into dinos, this was a favorite early book. The dinosaur pictures are clear. The dinos are all described, w/ enough detail to be able to identify them, w/out being a textbook. But my favorite part of this book is that all the dinosaur names are spelled out phonetically! It makes life so much easier when you know what to all the great beasties! I will post a photo of the book, ASAP. Enjoy! Books-from-mk

This book was a wonderful introduction to Dinosaurs for my son. It taught him the names of dinosaurs and what they eat in a way that was understandable for him.