Customer Reviews

Dinosaur Days (Step into Reading, Step 3)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a classic book for young readers and I had thought it would be accurate on the level of the readers. I looked back at a copy with a publishing date of 1985 and I was shocked when I saw the apatasaurus called the old, incorrect name of "brontosaurus." But that was not the worst error! Many older books have the name wrong 9and thus the wrong head, but that can be a minor thing.
But it got worse when it showed the "brontosaurus" as having nostrils on top of its head, which is actually a feature of the Brachiasaurus. And then having it hid from the Allosaurus (correct predator, at least) under water perpetuates the swamp-dwelling, water-immersing behavior model which is again incorrect.
If only those offending pages could be excised it would get four or five stars. The book does show the flying and swimming contemporaries of the dinosaurs; correctly identifying them as not being "dinosaurs." That could be more explicit but the point is made, even if subtly.

Now I see above there is a new publishing date. I hope the offending passage has been corrected. Then it would be a solid four-star book.

My four year old son checked this book out of the library. I've renewed the loan twice. He loves it so much that I just purchased two copies. _Dinosaur Days_ is informative and engaging for the young reader. He even uses it as a reference work to check whether he is correct in his indentification of his toy dinosaurs. I would highly recommend this book!

I like the book Dinosaur Days because it's a good book and shows how much the brontosaur weighs. The book also shows which dinosaur is the smallest. This story is about dinosaurs days and its a good book because it shows how small and how big they are. This event reminds me of the time when I was dreaming about dinosaurs. People who likes dinosaurs will like this book because it is a good book and its about dinosaurs and the ages who like it would be about 5-7 ages.

this reader seemed like a no-brainer for my boys who love dinosaurs and are learning how to read. but i regret buying it and i write so that others don't make the same mistake i did. here is a run-down of the errors:

- the book uses the word "dinosaur" four times before telling how to pronounce it (and claims it's hard to say!)
- "there are no dinosaurs today." what about birds?
- as other reviewers have mentioned, it claims apatosaurus hid underwater.
- in addition to perpetuating the "brontosaurus" error, the book also refers to "anatosaurus" which is more properly known as edmontosaurus.
- it can be confusing to young readers to see "apatosaurus" and "anatosaurus," two similar names among only nine named in the book.
- the book depicts triceratops using its horns for (offensive) fighting, but the more accepted theories are either for defense or for courtship.
- the discussion of what killed the dinosaurs is horribly, horribly, wrong. only three ideas are offered, of which only one (the world got so much hotter that it became difficult to find food) is plausible. the book completely misses the K-T impact hypothesis by stating that maybe a comet "came too near the earth," a profoundly silly misunderstanding that evokes the equally ridiculous 1910 panic when the earth passed through halley's comet's tail. and advancing the idea that mice ate all of the dinosaurs' eggs just promotes scientific illiteracy.

granted, the book does get many things right: plesiosaurs and pteranodons were not dinosaurs, even huge dinosaurs had small eggs, dinosaurs co-existed with other reptiles like crocodiles, the world of the dinosaurs was very different from the world of today, and we don't know a lot about them.

but all told, this book is so full of falsehoods and errors, that you will spend half or more of your time trying to explain to your kids that the book is wrong.

Is scientific accuracy the most important thing in exciting young readers? I think the reviews that get caught up in that are missing the big picture. Most early readers about dinosaurs are not written as a story with clever text and excellent illustration. This book is. It excites young kids to read and learn more about dinosaurs. It is not a scientific text, but a story. This excellent book got my son to move from a level 1-2 reader to a level 3, then quickly on to chapter books. He found this book exciting and could read it over and over. This is great for kids taking the next leap in reading. I highly recommend it!

"BRONTOSAURUS"??!! That name has been known to be incorrect for 100 years. And those dinosaurs couldn't hide in water and a meteor strike is what led to extinction. I can't believe how full of wrong info this 2007 book is. I could understand if it were a "storybook" but it's supposed to be non-fiction.

This is a good book for kids starting to read, that have an interest in dinosaurs. My son likes the part about how nobody knows what color dinosaurs were.