Dinosaur fans will have no trouble digging up better surveys.
A barrage of dino names and facts, with fanciful cartoon illustrations.
Between a cardboard magnifying glass taped onto the front cover and a board game (requiring reader-supplied dice and tokens) on the rear, Li scatters flat images of brightly colored dinosaurs, along with blocks of commentary that, except for some with numbers, are placed in no apparent order. The writing is amateurish (“Pterosaurs are one of the most filmed creatures of this time.” Say what?). Having set the bar for accuracy low at the outset by explaining fossilization using the “bones” of a prehistoric squid, the author goes on to present a mix of common facts and wrong or unsubstantiated information such as claims that T. Rex tails may have been too heavy to lift, that brachiosaurus was the heaviest dino, and that the duck-billed platypus is a Mesozoic relic. The stylized human figures scrambling through each scene do sport a variety of skin colors, but they are not consistently drawn to scale and are sometimes oddly placed (shredding foliage in a brachiosaur’s stomach, for instance). The science activity at the end suggests making “fossils” by burying chicken bones or toys in rubble and then digging them up.
Dinosaur fans will have no trouble digging up better surveys. (glossary, quiz) (Informational picture book. 6-8)Pub Date: May 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-84365-307-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pavilion/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: Feb. 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Sturdy split pages allow readers to create their own inventive combinations from among a handful of prehistoric critters. Hard on the heels of Flip-O-Saurus (2010) drops this companion gallery, printed on durable boards and offering opportunities to mix and match body thirds of eight prehistoric mammals, plus a fish and a bird, to create such portmanteau creatures as a “Gas-Lo-Therium,” or a “Mega-Tor-Don.” The “Mam-Nyc-Nia” places the head of a mammoth next to the wings and torso of an Icaronycteris (prehistoric bat) and the hind legs of a Macrauchenia (a llamalike creature with a short trunk), to amusing effect. Drehsen adds first-person captions on the versos, which will also mix and match to produce chuckles: “Do you like my nose? It’s actually a short trunk…” “I may remind you of an ostrich, because my wings aren’t built for flying…” “My tail looks like a dolphin’s.” With but ten layers to flip, young paleontologists will run through most of the permutations in just a few minutes, but Ball’s precisely detailed ink-and-watercolor portraits of each animal formally posed against plain cream colored backdrops may provide a slightly more enduring draw. A silhouette key on the front pastedown includes a pronunciation guide and indicates scale. Overall, a pleasing complement to more substantive treatments. (Novelty nonfiction. 6-8)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7892-1099-9
Page Count: 22
Publisher: Abbeville Kids
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
Eye candy and intellectual nourishment alike for newly independent readers.
A classic informational early reader gets a substantial, long-overdue update.
Kirkus criticized the 1985 edition for conveying outdated and misleading information—chivalrously leaving the stodgy colored-pencil illustrations unmentioned. All of that has been addressed here. Revised by the late Milton’s brother Kent, the text highlights or at least names over a dozen dinos, from the diminutive Citipati to the humongous Argentinosaurus, “as big as a house, longer than three buses, and as heavy as thirteen elephants!” Prehistoric contemporaries that were not dinosaurs also get nods, as do modern paleontology, the great extinction and the continued survival of birds: “So the dinosaur days go on.” Tempesta’s cover painting of a brightly patterned Triceratops being attacked by a T. Rex with a feathery spinal fringe opens a suite of equally dramatic group and single portraits. They feature mottled monsters viewed from low angles to accentuate their massiveness and reflect current thinking about feathers and coloration.
Eye candy and intellectual nourishment alike for newly independent readers. (Informational early reader. 6-8)Pub Date: July 22, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-385-37923-6
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: March 30, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
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