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: */*/*

Comments

[jaurdyn burrough]

my favorite dinosaur under water is probaly a plsiosaur.i,ve heard on national geographic channel that it is a relative of the lochness monster of lochness and is about 100-feet long. i watch lots of national geographic.

[Deb Clark]

Sounds like a pretty interesting dinosaur. In the book, the dinosaur that started with P was a parasaurolophus (try to say that three times fast!) and it was attempting, unsuccessfully, to pole vault. I imagine we'll never see that on the National Geographic Channel. Pity.