WOW IN THE WORLD: DINOSAURS ARE WOW!

A peppy pair of podcasters take readers back in time for prehistoric treats, ranging from exciting dino smackdowns to an interview with an argumentative chicken.

Constant and voluble presences themselves in the cartoon illustrations, the charismatic couple squire young fans past a dazzling array of dinosaurs and dino-adjacent creatures from pterosaurs to giant sharks while strewing the quick-turn pages with (sometimes literally) mind-blowing facts. Beginning 4.5 billion years ago with our planet’s birth, the tour moves through successive zones of “Paleozoic Park,” past the “Big Kaboom” of the Permian Extinction, to a “family reunion” of early humans and prehumans. Once the big picture has been laid out, it’s on to discussions of fossils from footprints to feces, and then to a flood of mini-features including galleries of dino eggs, modern fossils that sold for eye-watering sums, dinosaurs with goofy names like Dracorex hogwartsia, and such particularly toothy prehistoric predators as Spinosaurus (which “swims with the sharks and eats them too”). A final posting of “Dino-Jobs” offers career alternatives to paleontology for dinosaur lovers, while the backmatter features not only recommended reading, a large glossary, and comprehensive source notes for all the factual content, but also two pages of QR codes leading to relevant podcast episodes.

Full-throttle fun, with a solid foundation of fact.