MONSTER FLIERS
From the Time of Dinosaurs
by Elizabeth MacLeod and illustrated by John Bindon
Aiming for wide eyes and exclamations of “Cool!” MacLeod presents 19 prehistoric fliers and gliders from Titanus (“known as the Terror Bird or Killer Crane”) to Argentavis (“wing tip to wing tip, it stretched longer than a minivan”). Along with picking up a few basic speculations about how each probably got around on land, air and water—and what they most likely ate, of course—young dino fans will get a gander at what they may have looked like in Bindon’s naturalistic scenes as, bodies covered in hair or feathers painted with subdued colors and patterns, the winged monsters generally pose with mouths agape as they patrol for or chase down prey. A closing spread of silhouettes done to scale (with a pair of human figures down in one corner) sets this apart, slightly, from a plethora of similar albums like Don Lessem’s Flying Giants of Dinosaur Time (2005), also illustrated (differently) by Bindon. (Nonfiction. 7-9)