Customer Reviews

Dinosaur Mummies: Beyond Bare-bone Fossils

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

 

 

A terrific dinosaur book that any young child would love. The obviously gifted author combines a fascinating text with fabulous illustration. This book is a favorite of mine and my 10 year-old son.

As an elementary school teacher, I've spent years teaching 10-12 year olds about dinosaurs. Milner's Dinosaur Mummies is one of the best books that I've seen for this age group. She's packed in fascinating and current information into a friendly format. The text is written beautifully. It's easy enough for most or these kids to read indepently, while engaging the interest of the most experienced reader.

And the pictures!!! The artwork for this book is worth the price alone.

This is an excellent resource and should be a part of every dinosaur lover's library!

Who knew you could pack so much amazing information into 48 pages? There are lots of mummified dinosaurs in this book, including Ciro (a.k.a. Skippy), Willo, Leonardo, and others. The book also introduces some famous dinosaur hunters: Roy Chapman Andrews, Charles Sternberg, Barnum Brown, Luis Chiappe, Dale Russell, Jack Horner, and many more. Lots of photos and full-color illustrations make this a kid's have-to-have holiday gift, available in both hardcover and paperback (for only $7.95!). ISBN 9781581960341

I picked up this book because it was a Junior Library Guild Selection - very impressive - and it received a "Recommended" ranking from the National Science Teachers Association, a highly respected group that does not give out "Recommended" rankings lightly. I have never been steered wrong by the JLG, and I am not disappointed in the least this time, either.

My daughter and I really enjoyed reading this book together, and when she took it to class to share, her classmates enjoyed it, too. Halls' writing style makes a complicated subject easy for kids to comprehend and her profiles of some of the world's leading paleontologists are sure to inspire interest in paleontology as a career field - look, these are real live scientists! Not a movie, not fiction, but real people working in the field.

I'm so glad Halls chose a woman scientist to profile, too. Dr. Karen Chin's interest in dinosaur poop had my daughter laughing (she got really tickled at the description of a T-rex as the "poop-etrator" of a particular pile of coprolites), but even so, the other day I saw her taking especially careful notice of the dog's leavings in the back yard as she was cleaning it up. (Looking for bone fragments?) Gross, maybe, but hey, I know the characterization of Dr. Chin as a "girl who loves digging up dinosaur poop" made an impact. Maybe my girl has visions of herself as a scientist, too.

I loved all the aside bits that explained how the various scientific fields are interelated, too, like the part on the tectonic plates shifting and how this pushes layers of dinosaur bone-bearing rock to the surface to be found by modern-day bone hunters. I like how Halls explained the difference between archaeology and paleontology, too, and how human mummies and dinosaur mummies are different.

I like how Rick Spears' art is a nice balance to the very detailed scientific photos. I imagine there are a lot of ten- and eleven-year-olds out there emulating is kid-friendly, non-painterly style right now in creating their own dinosaur portraits.

Inspiration on a lot of levels here.

This book is absolutely packed with information. Halls has a gift for reaching out to her target audience and presenting this information in a way that will engage them at once and allow them to readily understand it.

She's a dinosaur lover herself, as proven in the warm and inviting introduction that features a photo of her on an actual dinosaur dig, and it shows in the passionate way she writes this book. I learned something new on every page.

I think young dino-lovers will really enjoy this book.

What a wonderful little book. Clear, smooth, natural prose, and wonderful drawings. We all love dinosaurs, but not many of us (okay, I'm probably the only one ignorant in this way)have even considered the idea of dinosaur mummies. Wish I'd had this book when I was a dino-nut kid, but my grandkids have it, and I'm happy for that.

This is a beautifully crafted book. Truth is I'm no expert on dinosaurs or dinosaur mummies, but I know a lot more than I did before I picked up the book, and the illustrations are SO compelling. This is a wonderful gift to any kid who likes dinosaurs, which by my count is all of them.

I bought this book for my son, who is a big dinosaur fan. I have to say we were disappointed that there were so many mistakes in the book. Children's science books should be accurate. My son also said that many of the websites didn't work and the people weren't where the book said they were. Since I went by the professional reviews, I don't think anyone read the book very carefully before recommending it.