EXTREME DINOSAURS

A talented artist specializing in dinosaurs pulls out all the stops in his first solo showcase for young fans. Serving up scene after mesmerizing scene featuring brilliantly colored, gorgeously feathered, spined, or wattled creatures, generally engaged in attack or defense, Rey incorporates recent discoveries and theories, but also lets his imagination roam free. He pairs dinosaurs that actually lived in different eras and reconstructs tableaux based on fragmentary fossil evidence. His enthusiasm for the whole subject, as well as his careful research, come out clearly in the accompanying commentary, as he introduces most of the dinosaurs portrayed while carefully separating fact from speculation and pointing out the liberties he’s taken. There’s plenty of posed violence here, but save for the deceptively titled “Tyrannosaurus Rex Family Life,” and a few other exceptions, explicit mayhem is toned down. Though a list of books or Web sites would not have gone amiss, serious students of the prehistoric will attack this with the same eagerness as casual browsers. (Nonfiction. 8-12)