What kind of parent was Tyrannosaurus rex? Were theropods more like birds or crocodiles? Was Oviraptor an egg thief or a protective parent? Older dinosaur readers will delight in this up-to-date exploration of scientists’ changing ideas about dinosaurs and how they raised their young. The author recreates scenes of dinosaur families—Oviraptor, Maiasaura, Troodon, and Tyrannosaurus rex—and the lavish illustrations help to make it clear. Zoehfeld then carefully documents the discoveries and evidence of paleontologists that supports the changing theories about how dinosaurs lived and raised their families. Her lively presentation challenges the reader and presents science as an exciting, unfolding mystery with many clues still unsolved. There are full-color photographs of working paleontologists and stunning photographs of dinosaur eggs, bones, and embryos. Coverage is from the Gobi Desert expedition of 1923, which first discovered dinosaur eggs, to findings in Patagonia in 1998 of tiny embryonic titanosaurs. And the author notes: “As for tyrannosaurs, stegosaurs, and the hundreds of other types of dinosaurs, the clues that will shed light on their secret lives are still out there in the rocks, waiting to be found.” Fascinating. (suggested reading, glossary, dinosaur dictionary, index) (Nonfiction. 10-14)
Pub Date: March 19, 2001
ISBN: 0-395-91338-2
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2001
Washburn’s illustrations take a nonthreatening to the subject, casting the rosy-toned dinosaurs as friendly rather than...
A highly accessible entry in the Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science series that takes a look at baby dinosaurs, primarily maiasaurs and oviraptors.
Zoehfeld (How Mountains are Made, 1995, etc.) explains how the current information on the peaceful, lizard-like dinosaurs who sipped from streams over 70 million years ago has been extrapolated from fossils, and that the rest is surmised from studying reptile and bird behavior and habits, which provide scientists with clues as to the nesting, nurturing of, and lives of baby dinosaurs. Hatching from small, oval eggs, the newborns ate berries while one member guarded the nest from meat-eating, nest-raiding predators. The author speculates as to the role of fossilized plants that covered the eggs of the maiasaurs and what the discovery of oviraptor skeletons may reveal about the feeding of the young.
Washburn’s illustrations take a nonthreatening to the subject, casting the rosy-toned dinosaurs as friendly rather than imposing. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-8)Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1999
ISBN: 0-06-027141-8
Page Count: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1999
Patrick’s beloved dinosaurs (Patrick’s Dinosaurs, illustrated by Donald Carrick, 1983, etc.) enter the new millennium with an updated imaginative flight. Patrick, who locates dinosaurs on the Internet, is unaware that the dinosaurs have been observing him from their own planet; he is whisked away one night by the friendly Flato in a “giant bumblebee” of a spaceship. When Patrick lands in a dinosaur schoolyard, a clever role reversal takes place and he finds himself the human equivalent of dinosaur “show and tell.” In one particularly funny moment, Patrick is grilled with questions such as, “What is it like to be warm-blooded? Did you hatch from an egg? What is your favorite food?” A soccer game ensues, shadowed by the arrival of a foot-stomping, tree-cracking tyrannosaurus rex. Patrick is hustled back aboard the spaceship, and lands safely back in his own bedroom, where, instead of stars, he dreams of dinosaurs. The interwoven dinosaur facts of the earlier books are absent here, other than identifying a few plant-eaters, and the author still refers to the apatopsaurus as a brontosaurus. Nevertheless, dinosaur-enthusiasts will welcome the return of their long-necked, personable friends, which Milgrim depicts as cuddly, cartoon-like, Barneyesque blue, green, and purple creatures. (Picture book. 3-7)
Pub Date: Sept. 20, 1999
ISBN: 0-395-50949-1
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1999
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