RAPTOR

Featuring both luridly colored beasts in melodramatic poses and plenty of savagely rent flesh, these prehistoric scenes will rivet young dinosaur fans. The plot—briefly told and perfunctory—follows a young predator as he squabbles with others of his kind, mates and then minds a clutch of hatchlings, claws away at prey both living and already dead, flees a fire and finally, successfully battles a rival for leadership of the pack. It’s the pictures of taloned (male—the females are plainer) raptors sporting turquoise feathers and bright red crowns hunting, fighting and fleeing that jump out. Though both text and paintings are subject to unusually severe breaks in continuity, this crowd-pleaser incorporates recent theories about what dinosaurs looked and acted like, along with plenty of action. (map, booklist, artist’s note) (Nonfiction. 9-11)