DINOSAURS!

Melodrama is the name of the game in this tall-format browsing item. With jaw-dropping precision, a dozen specialist illustrators depict scaled, spotted, crested, feathered, but mainly toothy, predators attacking similarly decorated prey, prowling alertly, or ominously, just seeming to catch sight of the viewer. Like the art, the text incorporates recent discoveries and theories, though its brevity makes for repetitiveness; an assertion that Velociraptor could “bite off huge chunks of meat at a time” needs rephrasing;, and not every prehistoric critter shown is identified. Considering the violence in nearly every scene, there is surprisingly little blood, but strict realism is not what this is about. Dinosaur and monster fans may be left wide-eyed, but they'll find more to chew over in Dougal Dixon’s Amazing Dinosaurs (p. 128). (Web sites, chart of groups, index) (Nonfiction. 8-11)