The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure

This advanced picture book is one of my three teenagers, my husband's and my all time favorites. We recently realized we couldn't find our personal copy of it and The Fantastic Flying Journey so we immediately tried to track down replacements. Now my 8 year old has had a chance to become equally enthralled with these 2 books by naturalist Durrell.

Gerald Durrell's books, The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure, and The Fantastic Flying Journey are two of my family's favorite books. Gerald Durrell wrote over 35 books, mainly for adults, about his real life adventures all over the globe collecting animals for zoos, primarily for the zoo he founded, and funded through his books, on the island of Jersey.Durrell had a life-long love of animals, first described in his book My Family and Other Animals, an autobiographical account of his unusual childhood, growing up on the island of Corfu, where his mother brought Gerald (age 10) and her three older children, at the badgering of the eldest, Lawrence Durrell (author of The Alexandria Quartet), in order to escape the cold, wet weather of England.The Fantastic Flying Journey and The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure describe the adventures and mishaps of "Great Uncle Lancelot" and the Dollybutt children, Emma and her twin brothers, Ivan and Conrad. In The Fantastic Flying Journey, they travel around the world, in a self-contained eco-system house, carried by a hot-air balloon, the Belladonna. Great Uncle Lancelot has persuaded Mrs. Dollybutt to let him take her children with him, while he searches for his brother Percival. Percival had invented some special powder which enabled the wearer to speak to, and be understood by, animals. Thus they were able to trace the route followed by Percival. It's a charming tale, relished by young and old. Our daughter's third grade teacher used the book as part of a year-long project, because it encompassed so many topics.The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure is the story of the second journey made by Great Uncle Lancelot and the Dollybutt children, as they travel back in time to the Age (actually there are 3 ages) of the Dinosaurs, to help save the dinosaurs from an evil Dinosaur hunter who has stolen a time machine. Saving animals from hunters and from extinction due to the destruction of their environment was a real-life theme for Durrell. It was/is the purpose for his zoo, and he was the first person to impress upon zoos of the world a need for a calling greater than entertainment, i.e., to teach people about animals and to help save animals from extinction by founding breeding pairs to keep the species alive.Durrell's warm humor and love of animals permeates his books, which are both entertaining and cleverly educational. The illustrations in both these books heighten the readers' enjoyment.