Weekly book shelf 10/8, Dinosaurs

We've now moved from the Paleozoic Era to the Mesozoic Era where our focus has been on dinosaurs and their rise to world domination and power. Intense, huh? Even more fun, though, is to take note of the little mammals waiting in the wings.

Dinosaurs Magic Tree House Research Guide and Dinosaurs Before Dark were of course favorites this week. Calvin is fond of the Magic Tree House series, and I think they make good supplements, especially the fiction books. Toned down more than most, the research guide is still a bit of a mess with varied fonts and some pages scattered with information and images. The illustrations are a bit cartoony, but still, the information is presented in a clear and readable way aimed at young children without talking down to them.

Dinosaurs Eye Openers by Angela Royston is definitely for a younger reader than the rest of the books here, but Calvin still enjoyed it. This is basically a dinosaur fact book highlighting eight different well-known species, like stegasaurus and triceratops. One dinosaur per two page spread with a paragraph of information in a relatively large font size, one main large picture of either a dino recreation or a skeleton, and a number of smaller sketches. The best part about this book is its simplicity, especially for young kids.

The Usborne Discovery: Dinosaurs book is a standard Usborne internet linked reference book. It's a bit jumbled and a little hot with a variety of images and image sizes on each page, and the information is presented not in paragraph or essay form but in short captions or blips. Some images are photos of dinosaure replicas, others are illustrations. Some spreads are about dinosaurs in general while others focus on specific species. We didn't use this one very much, and I didn't check out the interenet links at all, but Calvin enjoyed flipping through it.

Eyewitness Books: Dinosaur is a standard DK Eyewitness book with way too much going on. Lots of images and short blips or captions, but the information lacks a clear path and is presented in a hot or haphazzard manner. Still I find these books good for flipping through from time to time because the pictures can be fascinating.

The Great Prehistoric Search is a really fun search and find book with facts thrown in. Like Where's Waldo only much easier, each two page spread is a detailed and beautiful illustration with a list of things to look for or find. Each beautiful scene is created with creatures from a single time and location, and those creatures are listed along the sides with small images and a sentence of description or a fact about. The scenes actually start back in the Cambrian Period, and end in the Pleistocene Epoch. The first few pages are infomraton on evolution and the timeline, though they aren't particularly informative. The images are wonderful and the searches are fun, though not overly challenging. This is a big hit with Calvin.