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Dinosaur Name Poems, December 13, 2009
This review is from: Dinosaur Name Poems/Poemas De Nombres De Dinosaurios (English and Spanish Edition) (Paperback)
This book is a collection of poems about dinosaur names, written in English
and Spanish, and richly illustrated with the named dinosaurs. The book
is primarily aimed at children 4-12 years old, but can profitably be read
by persons of all ages, who wish to learn some elementary dinosaur
nomenclature, or who wish to build up their elementary skills in English
or Spanish. The end of the book includes an alphabetical glossary of all
the dinosaurs named in the book: the etymology of dinosaur names (e.g.,
archaeopteryx ("ancient wing"): archaio = ancient, pteryx = wing), diet,
locomotion, and interesting notes. In a sense, the reader gets four languages
for the price of two, since dinosaur word-roots are Latin and Greek,
the two languages which contribute most of the vocabulary to modern science
and technology. Children who learn these word-roots will meet them again
in their general science, chemistry, and biology courses.
In the golden age of poetry, from William Shakespeare and Miguel
de Cervantes-Saavedra to the end of the nineteenth century, poetry
had a larger purpose than collections of catchy words and phrases
about love, war, and wilderness scenery. The best poets were
not only masters of rhyme, dactyls, and hexameters, but also understood
the theology, cosmology, natural science, and medicine of their day.
Long before I ever saw their words on the printed page, my dad took
our family on long Sunday drives, and recited poems of Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.,
as he drove us along the rural roads of central Michigan. This was
my first, pre-school education. The present book returns to that
grand tradition. The author is not only a poet, but also a chemist,
linguist, surgeon, and father. The book is more than pretty pictures
and belles lettres; it is a serious educational work, approved
by the Teacher Programs at the Paleontological Research Institution,
at Cornell University. In rhymed cadences, we learn that the oviraptor,
meaning "egg thief", eats the eggs of other dinosaurs, and we see
an accompanying, vivid illustration of the oviraptor, that grabs
the imagination of the young student. This is poetry in action.
I have three minor quibbles. First, since the Glossary is in alphabetical
order but the poems for each dinosaur are non-alphabetical, it would
be handy to have a page number attached to each glossary entry,
that refers the reader back to the original poem. This way, the reader
who wishes to reread the poem for a particular dinosaur, can find that
poem easily. Another useful addition to the glossary would be to place
each dinosaur into its corresponding geological time-frame, perhaps with
a summary of the major geological time-frames for dinosaur at the
beginning of the glossary.
Second, I know that the Glossary is not a scholarly work, but the reader
should be told that the word-roots are Latin and ancient Greek. Perhaps
a few young minds will be stimulated to dig deeper, and explore this
lingistic heritage that underlies Western civilization. If foreign alphabets
are deemed not too threatening for young minds, then the Greek roots
could be displayed in the Greek alphabet, as well as in Romanized form.
[...]
The authors should consider including some of their academic references,
opinions, and translator notes that they collected in preparing this book,
for perusal on the publisher website.
Quibbles notwithstanding, this is a fabulous little book. Every child
should have this book on his/her bookshelf.
[...]
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