Book Buds Kidlit Reviews

Dino mystery

Did Dinosaurs Eat Pizza? Mysteries Science Hasn't Solved

by Lenny Hort; illustrated by John O'Brien

Our first outing as parents to the American Museum of Natural History in April didn't go as planned, to say the least. I got us on the wrong subway and we ended up on the East Side, instead of Upper West, so we tried to cab it, then doubled back in frustration, then almost took an express to Harlem. By the time we got there, a mere 90 minutes before closing, we couldn't raise the people we were meeting via cell phone.

We headed to the dinosaurs so Seth could promptly express boredom with all those massive skeletons, none of which moved or flew or ate his sister. Humph. I hid in a small theater to nurse the baby, who promptly fell asleep, trapping me in an infinite loop with Meryl Streep. Mass extinctions! Rain forest butchery! Oh my.

But our love of dinosaurs emerged unscathed, even if they are just a buncha bones. And that's kinda the prob for paleontologists too. For everything they can surmise about the big lizard/bird thingees from their fossils, there's tons of sheer guesswork, like what color skin they had or whether T. Rex hunted or scavenged.

This is serious stuff, never mind the dopey title. I guess that was an attempt at whimsy, but the inside's all science, even in O'Brien's comical ink-and-watercolor art. Okay, there was a pizza reference. A sauropod loops around itself and the palms it's eating have red tops. It looks like a squiggly pizza with a sauropod crust, illustrating text about how anybody might eat enough to maintain a 100-ton waistline. Who knows?

This book doesn't have all the answers. In fact, it has none of them. What sounds did they make? How did they court? How did they lay eggs from such huge heights? It's like all the times kids ask you a question and you've no idea how many stars there are or whether that stain is poo or chocolate or can we go yet. So you say "I don't know, sweetie" and endure their disappointed/skeptical/disgusted look because you know that in another 10 years, you're going to be seeing that same expression a lot.

Hort keeps his text short, precise, quick, then lets O'Brien have all the fun. We see a tiny, bow-tied and aproned dinosaur waiter being shoved out the kitchen door to serve a platter to T. Rex, whose table is surrounded by empty aprons, bow ties and bones. Gulp!

This is a fun one for the dino-obsessed, who have more questions than anyone can answer, and just so y'know that even the answer people get stumped.

Rating: *\*\*\

SEA WEEK Sharks and serpents and sea monsters, oh my!

Sharks and Other Sea Monsters (Encyclopedia Prehistorica Series)

by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart

Talk about a book jumping out and biting you. You'll be checking your fingers for missing digits with this pop-up primer on marine dinosaurs and other underwater nasties.

Don't be fooled by the plain cover, which hides four fat inches of complex 3-D depictions of the ugliest, meanest critters ever to slither, scuttle or swim beneath prehistoric seas. They literally burst into view in rich, dazzling colors and minutely crafted paper.

Each page also features booklets tucked into the corners with yet more pop-ups and intriguing facts, whether on crocs, sharks and other modern monsters or yet more ancient icky-sauruses.

Tragically, I have to put this book away for a few years, since its paper wizardry is too intricate for little hands. An eye-popping battle between long-necked sea lizards of several species took a few minutes to untangle and tuck safely away. A skeletal Ichthyosaur nearly lost its tail getting refolded.

Nonetheless, this is the book to have to impress your budding marine biologists. Just have the harpoons handy.

Rating: *\*\*\*\

Dinosaurs from A to Z

Could a Tyrannosaurus Play Table Tennis?

by Andrew Plant

Reviewed by Deb Clark

My 4-year-old has become obsessed with blood. Specifically, she’s intrigued by the fact that if someone loses all his blood, he’ll die. And, ever since we rented that Mesozoic-era classic “Land Before Time VI: The Secret of Saurus Rock,” she has added dinosaurs to the mix, making the conversation go like this:

“Mom?”

“Yes?”

“If a dinosaur with really, really, really sharp teeth bites a person, all his blood will come out and he will die. Right?”

“Yes, honey, that’s right.”

In Could a Tyrannosaurus Play Table Tennis? Andrew Plant presents an alphabet’s worth of ancient reptiles engaged in very un-dinosaur-like activities – playing volleyball, painting, flying a kite. Each page features a vibrant-hued painting of a dinosaur actively engaged in its specific pursuit, as well as a pronunciation guide for the name (extremely helpful with entries like homalocephale  and xuanhanosaurus), as well as information on what period the dinosaur lived in, where its fossils were found, how big it was and what it ate.

The book also includes a clever timeline that provides a clear picture of what types of creatures lived when, from squiggly little one-celled organisms on up. In a double-page spread at the end, all 26 of the book’s dinosaurs get together for a group shot with a couple of human kids.

It’s a clever way to reveal how the various animals compared in size, although I don’t like the way some of the more toothy dinosaurs are looking at those kids. Guess my daughter comes by her morbid imagination honestly.

Rating: */*/*

Hungry for more

Dinosaurs

by Benedicte Guettier

Hmmm ... there seems to be something missing, like someone took a giant bite. Open the book and ... ah, I see, it's a big hole in the middle! Where a little person's face goes! Aw, cute.

So, basically, what you have is a page after page of hungry dinosaurs arguing over what to eat, and each looks suspiciously like your own offspring. So when you get to Tyrannosaurus, who wants to eat the other dinosaurs, it should induce a few giggles instead of lip-quivering terror. 

Or you can always explain that this is an import from Belgium, and those durn furriners will eat just about anything.

Kidding!

Though my monsterling prefers PB&J's with the crusts cut off, thank you very much. ROAR!

Rating: *\*\

The trouble with Harry

Harry and the Dinosaurs at the Museum

by Ian Whybrow; illustrated by Adrian Reynolds

We’re big Harry and the Dinosaurs fans around here, so the hubby and I were both disappointed when this latest installment lacked the charm of the original book.

The premise is ho-hum: big sis Sam needs to research the Romans, so off they go to a museum. Although the dinos still come to life for Harry, it’s more cloying than magical, an expected part of his day rather than a peek into his secret world.

A tantrum that destroys his mean older sister’s homework is unacceptable to me, as is his running amok in the museum. Sorry, but antics like that around here would land those dinos back in the attic.

Even Reynolds’ rendering of the figures have changed and all bear the same gaping expression as if shouting, though his meticulous cross-hatching is a wonder in itself. Best graphic: a silhoetted Harry beneath a hulking T. Rex. Cool. But it can't save this lame sequel by itself.

Rating: *\*\

New life for old bones

Fossil

by Claire Ewart

Time for a little mother-daughter bonding. Hey, I know, let's dig up some bones! Okay, so the bones in this case are those of a pterosaur, a flying dinosaur that lived more than 90 million years ago. The book takes us through a typical pterosaur day and then through the eons it takes for it to fossilize, ending with the little girl's discovery. While Ewart's watercolors conjure up a lost world, her rhymes don't always take wing:

Screeching, beating,

wings repeating,

rhythms woven into bone.

Stretch for sky, reach for home.

Even so, it's better written than many science books aimed at young readers, and, hey, it has dinosaurs. How bad could it be?

Rating: *\*\