Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages (Hardcover)

~ Dr. Thomas R. Holtz Jr. (Author), Luis V. Rey (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Authored by one of the world’s leading paleontologists, this volume delivers a plethora of facts and discoveries about dinosaurs. Despite the fact that it is called an encyclopedia, the volume is arranged in 42 chapters, beginning with a short history of the discovery of dinosaurs. Other chapters cover topics such as fossils and fossilization, geologic time, where to find fossils, and how museum preparators achieve reconstruction with the limited specimens recovered. Explorations of taxonomy, evolution, cladistics, and dinosaur origins precede a thorough examination of each group—Ceratosaurians, Spinisaurs, Carnosaurs, etc., 24 varies in all. Examinations of dinosaur eggs and babies; behavior; life during the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous eras; and dinosaur extinction complete this book. Scattered throughout the book are 33 sidebar articles by leading paleontologists. Illustrations include photographs, graphs, and charts, as well as color artwork, on every page. An appendix (“Dinosaur Genus List”) and a glossary of terms conclude the work. Passionate dinosaur lovers will want to read this new title cover to cover, but students doing homework assignments may be overwhelmed. With their encyclopedic arrangement, titles such as Age of the Dinosaurs (Grolier, 2000), Dinosaurus: The Complete Guide to Dinosaurs (Firefly, 2003), and Scholastic Dinosaurs A–Z: The Ultimate Dinosaur Encyclopedia (2003) are more accessible as reference tools. Recommended for collections where another resource on dinosaurs is needed, and if you already have dinosaur titles in your reference collection, this is one to circulate. Grades 7-12. --Cheryl Ward --This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

Review

(Starred Review)...this eye-catching imagination grabber will be enjoyed (on different levels) by dinophiles of all ages. -- School Library Journal, December 2007

...[a] rich and informative treatment of everything related to dinosaurs....even the higher-level concepts are presented remarkably clearly. -- Horn Book Magazine, January/February 2008

...a very good bet for favorite 2007 dinosaur book in our PT PIX...truly sets a standard for reference material. -- Prehistoric Times, Issue 83, Fall 2007

...beautifully written and illustrated...this NSTA/CBC Outstanding Science Trade Book will be valuable in the middle through secondary classrooms... -- NSTA

...encyclopaedic in scope and exceeds all expectations. A superior book the young dinosaur lover in your life will cherish. -- Januarymagazine.com

...the most dynamic title on the subject that I have seen for this age group [older kids] in awhile. -- Bookslut.com, December 2007

...would work beautifully as a gift for a paleontology-minded preteen...or any adults.... -- Wordcandy.net

Anyone with even a passing interest in dinosaurs should not miss this journey into their diverse and strange world. Holtz and his colleagues fill the book with fascinating details ranging from discoveries of new species (e.g., a sauropod, Amphicoelias, with a mass of 18 elephants) to old favorites (e.g., Tyrannosaurus rex, which may have lived and hunted in packs). They cover major and minor groups, predator-prey relations, social interactions within species, habitats and habits, and evolutionary trends. With its conversational tone and Rey's engaging illustrations, the book should appeal to young adults and a general audience alike. --Science, December 5, 2008

Dinosaur fans seeking exhaustive information...need look no farther than Holtz's scientifically oriented but accessible account...an outstanding resource. -- Publishers Weekly, November 5, 2007

I am holding a treasure....This is a book that should have pride of place on any bookshelf. -- Roger Smith, Publisher, Dinosaurnews.org

This is the most comprehensive, up-to-date dinosaur book for enthusiasts of all ages, professional or non-professional in experience. -- Dino Russ's Lair

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers (October 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375824197
• ISBN-13: 978-0375824197
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #39,535 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Visually stunning and technically flawless, October 24, 2007

By	Mr. M. Taylor (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Holtz and Rey's Dinosaurs raises the bar not just for all dinosaur books but for all children's books on any subject. I have never -- never -- seen a children's non-fiction book tackle its subject so head-on, in such depth, and with such approachability as this new encyclopedia does. It has something for everyone: the youngest child can enjoy Luis Rey's distinctive, dynamic illustrations; slightly older children will appreciate the descriptions of individual dinosaurs; those older still will be able to understand chapters on the history of dinosaurs, the fossilisation process, geological time and more. And even most adults will learn something from the chapter on cladistics -- surely a first in a book aimed primarily at children.

Tom Holtz is respected as one of the world's leading experts on tyrannosaurs, and more generally for his gift of explaining complex concepts as simply and clearly as possible. His prose is easy to read without being condescending, and always informative. Luis Rey is known for his characteristically colourful and feathery dinosaur art: his work could not be more different from the ``old-school'' dinosaur art of Knight and Burian: it's a welcome antidote to the dull, slow image of dinosaurs that predominated in the books of twenty or even ten years ago. That vividness is combined with a scientific rigour that is by no means universal in dinosaur art to give a new and exciting view of how dinosaurs may well have looked in life.

The book's coverage is impressively complete. An appendix gives basic information on every dinosaur named at the time of publication (about 800 genera), and the main part of the book is a sequence of chapters describing particular dinosaur groups in much more detail. For example, there are separate chapters about coelophysoids and ceratosaurs, spinosauroids, carnosaurs, primitive coelurosaurs, tyrannosauroids, ornithomimosaurs and alvarezsaurs, oviraptorosaurs and therizinosauroids, deinonychosaurs and avialans -- and that's just the theropods! Ornithischians are covered in similar detail, and while sauropodomorphs as usual draw the short straw, they do at least receive four chapters (twice as many as in The Dinosauria, 2nd edition!)

Not only that, the book is BIG -- roughly A4 in size and a good inch thick, printed on thick, glossy paper. Weighing in at a solid 1.7 kg, it has the heft of a proper encyclopedia. At the price (currently $23.09) it's truly absurd value for money, and sits comfortably on the shelf alongside the Glut and Currie-and-Padian encyclopedias costing five times as much.

If I had to criticise this book, then its one imperfection would the absence of a chapter on osteology. A tour of the dinosaur skeleton, explaining the names of the bones, how they fit together and what they do would have been a perfect fit for the more advanced material that's already included. But when the only thing you can criticise about a book is that you wish there was more of it, you know you're on to a good thing.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars With a title like that it has to be good--It is!, December 15, 2007

By	Camille "at the BookMoot!" (Katy, TX) - See all my reviews

This book is for the dino-connoisseur, the tyranno-gourmand, the read-all-about-it-a-saurus. The book covers all things dinosaur from a review of geologic time and the history of fossil discoveries to dinosaur babies and dinosaur dung.
Forty-two chapters and 472 pages examine every branch of the dinosaur family tree.
In-depth chapters on coelurosaurs, prosauropods, tyrannosauroids, ceratopsids, (and the list goes on) are enhanced with colorful illustrations that "flesh-out" the detailed drawings of the skeletons which also accompany the chapters.

Personal essays from 33 paleontologists extend the chapters. Dr. Scott D. Sampson discusses "Male and Female Dinosaurs--Can we tell the difference?" and Dr. Matthew T. Carrano writes about "Walking and Running Dinosaurs." Dr. Luis Chiappe reviews the origins of birds during the Mesozoic Era. All of these essays are one page in length and very engaging and readable. The reader hears the scientist's voice explaining their interest and passion for the subject.

This is NOT an Eyewitness book with different reading levels and distinct blocks of text but the illustrations are captioned and sections are headed in uppercase titles. The text is laid out in two columns with a nicely sized type and good white space.

Extensive dinosaur genus charts at the back refer the reader to the matching chapters. If you know a dinosaur fanatic, this is the book for them.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 10 Stars--For all ages, December 12, 2007

By	Karen Woodworth Roman "www.librarians.info" (DeKalb, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages is aptly titled. This truly is for all ages. The organization and scope are outstanding and Dr Thomas R. Holtz, Junior's writing is crystal clear and interesting. He makes the history and changes in the field fascinating reading. Dinosaurs is full of illustrations by Luis V. Rey that expertly compliment the text. There are also charts and photographs. I also like the brief articles by various scholars included in most chapters. There is an extensive Dinosaur Genus List, Glossary, and Index. This book is a remarkable value and priced not only for every school and public library, but affordable for lovers of dinosaurs everywhere. Karen Woodworth-Roman, www.librarians.info