DK Guide to Dinosaurs [Hardcover]

David Lambert (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2000 | Grade Level: P and up

All about dinosaurs-all in Dorling Kindersley style.

Using the most accurate models ever produced, DK Guide to Dinosaurs blends lifelike dinosaurs replicas with photorealistic scenery. The resulting images bring dinosaurs and their strange world back to life in astonishing detail. Visit the dank swamps, moving seascapes, and sun-scorched deserts that marked and molded the lives and ultimate demise of the dinosaurs. Packed with mind-boggling dinosaur facts, records, and timelines, DK Guide to Dinosaurs profiles key species from Barosaurus to Tyrannosaurus and features many of the latest discoveries, including Giganotosaurus and the feathered Caudipteryx. The front cover of this jacket features a pack of Giganotosaurus dinosaurs charging through the conifer forests of Argentina, 95 million years ago. Bigger even than the colossal Tyrannosaurus rex, Giganotosaurus is now thought to have been the largest predator ever to walk the Earth.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A pack of fang-toothed Velociraptors gangs up on an unlucky Protoceratops, loping across the desert sand to close in for the kill. A gentle, duck-billed Maiasaura ("good mother lizard") feeds bits of scrub to the appreciative youngsters scampering at her feet. A 41-foot-long, six-ton, flesh-eating Gigantosaurus roars as he lunges at ... a taxicab? DK pulls out all the stops bringing dinosaurs to life in this guide's gorgeous 14-by-21-inch glossy spreads, imagining how they'd appear and behave in their natural habitats, all based on fossil evidence. (Well, except for the Gigantosaurus, who makes a playful appearance with a Barosaurus and a Compsognathus in a bustling downtown scene, just to give you an idea of size and scale.)

DK's seamless graphic treatments and evocative models and photographs are unparalleled, and this oversized Guide to Dinosaurs makes tasty eye candy for any dino lover. Each section tackles a different behavioral or physiological trait ("Arms and Claws," "Hunting in Packs," "Extraordinary Eggs"), placing representative species in convincingly mocked-up settings to illustrate the point. And sneaked in with all these pretty pictures are quite a few meaty but kid-friendly lessons on everything from fossil formation to extinction theory, thanks to award-winning dino author David Lambert. For an imaginative but scientifically rigorous peek into the Mesozoic, you'll find no better guide than DK. --Paul Hughes

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-7-Some librarians may wonder where to shelve such an oversized item, but this exceptionally appealing guide won't stay in the library long enough to worry about it. The vivid illustrations are riveting. One page imaginatively places a Gigantosaurus and Barosaurus on a modern city street to convey the huge proportions of these creatures. Other pictures are set in prehistoric swamps and forests or underwater lairs to portray dinosaurs in their environments. The facts are up-to-date, and diagrams and captions help to explain concepts such as how dinosaurs used their tails, how pterosaurs flew, and how fossilized teeth give clues as to what dinosaurs ate. Though there's plenty of material here for reports, the best use of this volume will be for transporting readers back to ancient times when these scaly giants ruled the Earth.
Cathryn A. Camper, formerly at Minneapolis Public Library
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 64 pages
• Publisher: DK CHILDREN; 1st edition (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789452375
• ISBN-13: 978-0789452375
• Product Dimensions: 13.8 x 10.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,375,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #98 in Books > Children's Books > History > Prehistoric

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative, visually stylish Dinosaur picture book for kids, March 27, 2003

By 

A. Ryan "Merribelle" (Westminster, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: DK Guide to Dinosaurs (Hardcover)

I bought this for my three year old boy last year hoping he would grow into it. As predicted, at first he only paid attention to the impressive photos of the dinosaurs that dominated each two-page section: but a year later, he is drawn to examine the smaller pictures and ask more questions about the animals. This book works so well, I think, because it can appeal to a wide age range of children and has something of interest in it appropriate to every stage of learning.

The best educational point about this book IMHO is that the dinosaurs featured are not the familiar ones we see in all the other dinosaur picture books (T rex, Brontosaurus, Triceratops, etc), but the author chooses to focus on less-known types such as Barosaurus, Gigantosaurus, Gastonia and Coelophysis, to name a few. Broader subjects include social behaviors, environmental factors that influenced body types and hide patterns/colors, and speculation on possible fates of the dinosaurs. Supplemented with a more traditional dinosaur picture book, your child will eventually have an uncommon knowledge on dinosaurs.

DK Guide to Dinosaurs is also one of the more well-illustrated dinosaur picture books for kids in their grade school years. (Actually, the main "illustrations" are photographs of quality museum models in realistic diorama environments). The unusual design layouts are grounded on black rather than the traditional white, lending a sophisticated look to a subject that is all too often overly textbook-ish in other natural history picture books of this type. More importantly however, the sidebars, timelines and graphical inserts are packed with information and placed in a way that flows well with the main page, leading the eye to points of interest along the page and teaching kids in a more subtle style.

This would be a very good choice for children starting grade school and I can foresee many years when it will be used as a reference for reports and other school projects. My only criticism is that the binding will not take continual abuse from the smaller children in the family, so keep it on a higher shelf...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thrilling journey through prehistoric times, November 5, 2005

By 

Bonnie Sayers "autismfamily" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: DK Guide to Dinosaurs (Hardcover)

There are thirty chapters in all, each consisting of two pages with illustrations, graphs and descriptions. For the two-page spread on reconstructing the past, this is done in full-length, so the book must be turned another way for you to view this chapter. My son likes the Feet and Footprints chapter along with the Migration and Killer Instinct. You can see the " Powerful jaws were Tyrannosaurus's main weapon."

In the chapter, Types of Dinosaurs it is broken down into the periods of Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous. For the Heads and Skulls chapter it is mentioned, " Suchomimus had a long, narrow head like a crocodile's, and teeth to match." Prehistoric Earth breaks down what each continent was like during the time period, for Triassic Life" The first dinosaurs appeared in the Triassic Period, about 230 million years ago." For the Cretaceous World "The Earth began to take on its present form in the Cretaceous."

DK Guide to Dinosaurs is suited for children who are interested in learning everything you could ever want to know about Dinosaurs as well as Adults who are curious about them. If you ever had to write a book report this would be the book to purchase on the subject of Dinosaurs.

We have borrowed numerous books over the course of a year on Dinosaurs and I would place this book at the top of the list in gaining knowledge and the vivid illustrations that bring this period to life through the pages of DK Guide to Dinosaurs.

My seven-year old says there are many pages in this book and he reads it at leisure a few chapters at a time. You can gain insight into the social life of Dinosaurs, what their favorite food was as well as which ones were carnivores. There are illustrations of dinosaur eggs and the meteors that were thought to destroy the land of the dinosaurs. The most colorful page is the DinoBirds where you see the red and blue feathered DinoTurkey, and wonder whether the Velociraptor was a DinoBird too.

There is a lot to absorb in DK Guide to Dinosaurs but not overwhelming if you pick and choose topics of interest first and delve in slowly. Inside the index you can easily find where claws are discussed, nasal bosses, plants, asteroids, volcanoes and snakes to name a few. Dorling Kindersley acknowledged many photographs that were reproduced within DK Guide to Dinosaurs, which would make a great gift for any Dinosaur loving fantatic! For some kids just learning the names of all the Dinosaurs can be a fun challenge. This over sized book would sit nicely on a coffee table and be ideal for reading in a classroom environment a chapter a day.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Text is Not for 4-8 Year Olds, October 25, 2007

By 

wrbtu (Long Island Motor Parkway) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: DK Guide to Dinosaurs (Hardcover)

The age range specified for this book, as listed on the amazon web page, is 4-8 years old. I'm not an expert on kids that age, & they undoubtedly would be interested in the illustrations, but the text of this book is certainly more advanced than that. Phrases like "preposterously outsized" (p. 28), "chalk-forming single-celled organisms (p. 51), etc. would make the text comprehensible to a bit older group than 4-8 year olds. I'm not complaining about the way the book is written (it's written in a very clear, very straightforward, & informative style, using simple language), I'm just referring to the claimed target age group. The illustrations range from OK to outstanding, although there is some redundancy (the terrific Giganotosaurus illustration is used for the front cover, spread across pp. 4-5, & the same illustration is used again on pp. 8-9 in a different setting). Although the scope of this book is quite limited (it is, after all, only 64 pages), there is a lot of interesting information contained on the dinosaurs it does cover, & there are explanations of basic (& not so basic) facts answering often asked questions (like the reason many dinosaur forelimbs are so short). Adults with some knowledge of dinosaurs can learn quite a bit here as well. For example, p. 26 shows a skeletal layout of a Velociraptor & Protoceratops that I've seen before but never fully understood. Author David Lambert explains what probably happened to cause the positions of these two dinosaurs. A good book to have in your dinosaur library.