A Review of the Little Book of Dinosaurs

An ideal stocking filler for young dinosaur fans this Christmas is the pocket-sized “Little Book of Dinosaurs”, packed with facts and figures about some of the most fascinating creatures that lived in prehistoric times.  Without much of a preamble, this little book launches straight into descriptions with well-crafted illustrations of various dinosaurs.

The Little Book of Dinosaurs

A pocket-sized guide to dinosaurs,

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Aimed at young readers from five years and upwards, this little book contains information on something like sixty different dinosaurs.

The writers have created sixty-four pages which are jammed full of information about the Dinosauria.  The contents are split into twenty-nine sections which describe these prehistoric creatures, with the last section, number thirty being dedicated to a quick quiz  to see if those young palaeontologists the book is aimed at have absorbed the information the book contains.  The quiz answers are provided which will be a big relief to those parents, grandparents and guardians who will be tasked with helping their charges to read through the text.

The Little Book of Dinosaurs has been designed to help young children with their reading.  The text is large and there are lots of sections in a bold font to help children develop their reading skills.  Most dinosaurs are described on a single page, although some animals are given a double page spread.  With short snippets of information with headings such as “Terrible Tyrants”, “Big Brains” and “Dagger Thumbs” there is much to appeal to young fans of these extinct reptiles.

There are colour illustrations throughout, although the lack of pictures of feathered dinosaurs makes some of the interpretations of dinosaurs such as the troodontids and psittacosaurs look a little dated.  This book does permit young readers to enter the fascinating world of these Mesozoic animals and there are certainly a great range of the Dinosauria covered, from the turkey-sized Velociraptors up to the mighty tyrannosaurs such as T. rex and Albertosaurus.

To view Everything Dinosaur’s selection of dinosaur themed toys and gifts: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Toys and Gifts.

One particularly informative section deals with the concept of some, small predatory dinosaurs such as the dromaeosaurs living in small packs and adopting a pack hunting behaviour.  Using the American dinosaur Deinonychus (D. antirrhopus), as an example, the authors speculate on how this type of predatory dinosaur hunted.  Under the heading “Pack Hunters” how this dinosaur may have attacked prey is outlined and this section is illustrated with a series of black and white drawings showing how Deinonychus may have hunted the herbivorous Tenontosaurus.

An Example of the Text and Images

Well-crafted text for young readers.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

With the likes of Parasaurolophus, Centrosaurus, Allosaurus and the big sauropods such as Diplodocus and Apatosaurus included, this pocket-sized guide to dinosaurs makes an ideal Christmas gift for young dinosaur fans.