“Like giant gaffing hooks, these claws could spear a fish the size of a grown man. Once Suchomimus had shoveled the prey into its mouth, its one hundred hooked teeth would clamp down like huge pinking shears.” Paired with plenty of melodramatic, carefully detailed—and frequently blood-spattered—dinosaur portraits, Tanaka’s rousing survey of recently identified specimens and species covers every continent except Antarctica, and introduces dinosaurs in a wide array of shapes and sizes, from crow-like Microraptor to several bus-sized creatures. She also delivers “The Real Poop” on dino-dung, rare fossilized internal organs, feathers, and the most recent Great Extinction, 65 million years ago. Concluding with an annotated map, plus lists of books and Web sites, this will rivet young readers while bringing them up to speed on the latest news from the paleontological front. (Nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: June 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-689-85183-9
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Atheneum
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2003
Categories: CHILDREN'S DINOSAURS & PREHISTORIC CREATURES
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Young Josh needs to up his ride if he’s going to win the Trihorn settlement’s 100th-anniversary Founders’ Day race and meet his hero, Terrordactyl Bill.
Set on the Lost Plains, where ranchers tend to herds of iguanodons, and horses (if there were any) would be easy pickings for the local predators, this series kickoff pits a brash lad and sidekick and schoolmates Sam and Abi against not only the requisite bully, but such fiercer adversaries as attacking pterodactyls. Josh’s first challenge after eagerly entering the race is finding a faster, nimbler steed than his steady but old gallimimus, Plodder. Along comes Charge—an aptly named, if not-quite-fully-trained triceratops with speed, brains, and, it turns out, a streak of loyalty that saves Josh’s bacon both here and in a simultaneously publishing sequel, How To Rope a Giganotosaurus, which prominently features T. Rex’s much larger cousin. Dare adds a map, as well as spot illustrations of rural Western types (Josh and Abi are white, Sam has dark skin and tightly curled hair) astride toothy, brightly patterned dinos. In both adventures Josh weathers regular encounters with dinosaur dung, snot, and gas as well as threats to life and limb to show up the aforementioned bully and emerge a hero.
Adventures and misadventures, Old West style—but with dinos. (Fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: April 4, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4926-4668-6
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
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A straightforward chronological account of the lives, work and conflicts between O.C. Marsh and Edward Cope, pioneers in the newly developed field of paleontology, whose 19th-century feud led to countless discoveries, bitter bickering in scientific journals and destruction of some fossil specimens. The narrative does not dwell on details of their fieldwork; it is the drama of their escalating quarrel that carries the reader along, while the author occasionally adds a reminder that much more might have been accomplished with cooperation. Occasional black-and-white photographs and reproductions of their notes and drawings add interest. This latest entry in the long-standing Landmark history series will especially appeal to middle-grade readers grown beyond their first fascination with dinosaurs and ready to learn more about the scientists who opened up this field, sometimes literally. (index, bibliography) (Nonfiction. 8-10)
Pub Date: Dec. 26, 2006
ISBN: 0-375-81349-7
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2006
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