Recent dinosaur discoveries, speculations, and continuing questions are explored in this title in the Science Explorers series from Owl Magazine, intended for older dinosaur buffs. Did dinosaurs have feathers? What did baby dinosaurs look like? What kind of dinosaur made that coprolite “poop?” Each topic is introduced in a double-page spread, with text and half a dozen photographs and drawings. Photographs show working scientists on digs and in the laboratory, as well as images produced by the high-tech equipment like electron microprobes used to map the chemical components of dinosaur coprolites. The juxtaposition of fossil photographs, and artist interpretations, for example, the mother Maiasaura tending her babies, may prove jarring to adult viewers, but children raised on computer simulations and movies like Jurassic Park, will take them in stride. In addition to dinosaurs, the title introduces half a dozen working scientists with quotes, thumbnail biographies, and photos. An intriguing additional purchase, which will appeal to dinosaur enthusiasts. (index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 1-895688-97-3
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Firefly
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2000
When Uncle Wolfe takes them on a dinosaur hunt, orphaned twins Grace and Marty find themselves in a B-movie with email. When the twins’ explorer parents vanish in the Amazon (to be found in the next book?), mischief-maker Marty and genius scaredy-cat Grace go to live on Uncle Wolfe’s private island. Wolfe hunts cryptids: mythical creatures such as Yetis, Kraken, and Chupacabras. Though he doesn’t intend to bring the children on his dinosaur hunt in the Congo, they arrive anyway, after falling from his airplane into the darkest jungle, accompanied only by a teacup poodle, a chimpanzee named Bo, and a high-end Gizmo complete with videoconferencing. There the children must reunite with their uncle, find the mythic dinosaur Mokèlè-mbembè, and avoid the minions of evil Dr. Blackwood. Luckily there are friendly Pygmies to help. And what is the deep, dark secret that has given Grace nightmares all her life—and what does it have to do with Dr. Blackwood? Enjoyably rollicking adventures are appropriately cheesy; the stereotypes, though equally fitting, are a bit much. (Fiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7868-5161-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2004
Setting story aside, the primary duty of Bluebonnet, an armadillo, is to aid and abet the public relations efforts of the Texas tourism industry. The only issue that could be construed as a character-driven conflict in this title is that Bluebonnet has missed Marshall’s Fire Ant Festival. Her real purpose, however, is to visit the Marshall train depot. Even when a fence bars her from entering that duly-described edifice, the fetching armadillo’s problem melts away under the benign gaze of T.P., a cat whose name stands for the Texas & Pacific. The two become ever-smilin’ buddies as T.P. tells Bluebonnet all manner of things of interest mostly to Texans and tourists. Texas schoolchildren helped mount a campaign to save the depot from demolition, readers learn, although they don’t learn why. Vincent’s illustrations offer a sense of the depot’s early-1900s bustle, however, and his critters are cute as can be. (Picture book. 5-9)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1999
ISBN: 1-56554-311-4
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Pelican
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1999
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