Customer Reviews

DK Great Dinosaur Atlas

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"The Great Dinosaur Atlas" is wonderful book in its mission and accomplishment. An atlas by definition is a book of maps. A specialized atlas, like this one, adds a special subject to those maps.

Crafting their words and illustrations for children, the author/illustrator, Lindsay and Fornari, show dinosaur faces on the first two pages (the book is set up in double-page subjects), with maps indicating their discoveries. "Age of the Dinosaurs," a section of chapter one, explains: "Fossils are a record of the Earth, and every new fossil found may help to fill in our picture of the world of dinosaurs" (7). The date of this atlas is 1991. It is a DK publication, with Dorling Kindersley one of the very best publishers in children's nonfiction, informational books.

The rest of the atlas, then, is a gradual revealing of known information concerning dinosaurs, their archaelogical discoveries, and what those discoveries tell us. As the author says, new finds sometimes change the interpretation of old information.

The atlas shows the earliest earth mass, Pangaea, its shifting divisions into the continents we have today. Knowing that there was one mass easily explains how an identical skeletal remains in South America was also found in Australia, an island continent. What dinosaurs lived during the Jurassic period and the Cretaceous? What did they eat? How did they reproduce? What happened to these unique creatures that became extinct?

That information and those answers fill the rest of the book, with the illustrations just as informative as the information. However, what makes this book stand out is the huge, in-your-face illustrations of the dinosaurs. Most children already know about dinosaurs, but to hold this over-sized book (14" x 11"), and see those large pictures will make the child push the book away a bit from the startle reflex.

I cannot say this is the best book about dinosaurs, but it is a highly recommended book for a children's library because it is an atlas--thus a great lesson book--and a quality one.

Note: Please click on the book title to go to the product page, click on the images and examine the selected illustrations taken from the book.

Second note: At the time of this writing, I had not considered information that might be outdated. Since publication of this review, commentators have suggested I might re-consider. I would have to remove the entire review, losing all comments, to change the star rating. Instead, I am stating here that this fabulous DK Atlas is most likely outdated and that I probably will remove it from circulation in my school library.

This atlas serves as a lovely introduction to the world of dinosaurs. At just 64 pages, it is very readable with text that is easily understood & yet not patronizing to the beginner. The book tries to be comprehensive in its coverage by first telling us about the formation of the continents & how this explains where dinosaur fossils are found. The dinosaurs found on each of the continents are then covered, and this is interspersed with specific information on the various types of dinosaurs eg the carnosaurs, sauropods, horned dinosaurs etc. All the way, the book is beautifully illustrated with detailed & colorful renditions of the dinosaurs & their skeletons by Giuliano Fornari, who has a list of other dinosaur books to his credit. One gripe is that the book doesn't appear to be up to date. It was originally published in 1991 and although this is listed as the 'First American Revised Edition 1999', recent dicoveries are not mentioned - eg the book lists Ultrasauros as the longest dinosaur, but in 1993, the 130 foot long Argentinosaurus huinculensis was named. Another dinosaur recently described, Sauroposeidon, found in Oklahoma might be even bigger. In addition, Tyrannosaurus rex is mentioned as the largest carnosaur, but I believe that the Giganotosaurus carolinii named in 1995 might be bigger. Still, these are small gripes that do not detract from the fact that this is a great book for budding dinosaur lovers of all ages ( even my 16 month old son pulls the book down to leaf thro its pages daily).