Customer Reviews

Scholastic Dinosaur A To Z

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this book because it had been given 5 stars, but I wish I could have looked inside at the pages beforehand. With 700 entries, one would think this book would have a huge number of accompanying illustrations. But no. For every 7-10 entries, you get a mere one full page picture and sometimes a rather small picture or two. As I read each entry, I had no idea of what most of these dinosaurs even looked like, aside from knowing what general group it belonged to. It left me wishing I had bought a different dinosaur encyclopedia.

My 2nd grader, a future paleontologist, has been a dinosaur fanatic since he was three, and we have read dozens of dino reference books. He checked this one out of the school library and we started digging in. We were glad to find it, because it is the most complete "dino by dino" guide we'd come across. It fills in a lot of gaps left by other books.

Most of the books we've read don't have pronunciation guides or they have outdated info (some still call Apatosaurus by the old name, Brontosaurus), or just tidbits. The Scholastic A to Z book has pronunciations, including alternate pronunciations, meaning of the name, what/who the dino is named after, where it was found, classifications, length, time period, diet, and a variety of other details. The only thing missing is the weight of the dinos, which is an odd thing to leave out. Perhaps we'll gradually jot this info in the book as we read it in other books.

It also includes names that people commonly call certain dinosaurs and clarifies whether the name is truly a scientific name, and often tells you the origin of that misnomer while referring you to the correct name. There are numerous full-color illustrations and sidebars with interesting notes about topics like dinos in the movies, famous paleontologists, etc.

It has a great primer at the beginning of the book that is still interesting reading even if you're familiar with the overall history and classifications of dinosaurs. In general it's not the kind of book you'd typically read from beginning to end, but it's great to refer to when you're reading another book and the info is incomplete.

It's not a perfect guide, but is as close as we've come. I would highly recommend this if you have a dinosaur fanatic in your home! And it's a steal at the used book prices, since the original list price was $23. Go for it!

The 'Book Fair' was at my school, when I bought this book. I read a couple of entries and I couldn't stop reading. The only thing I wish they could add to the book is more Illustrations. The print is average size, I guess, and another thing that bothered me was that, it covers almost all the dinosaurs. I was watching a progarm on dinosaurs, and I was trying to look up the dinosaurs but couldn't find them. I reccomend this book for "Dinosaur Lovers" 7-20 of age.

I purchased this for my daughter when she was 4. For the past year since then it has been an invaluable resource. If we want more information about a particular dinosaur--how to pronounce its name, where it's fossils have been found, how big it was, etc., we can go to this reliable source for the answer. She also likes me to simply read it to her. The text is very engaging with lots of interesting facts related to dinosaur research and discovery.

Dinosaurs, along with trains and planes, are my little boy's thing so when I saw this book it was a must have. Now it's a must read. He drinks it up. There is way too much information for me personally but he is loving every picture, every word, every paragraph. He's only 4, so he will grow with the book and the book is advanced enough to grow with him.

We have a copy of this book, c. 2003, and it is coming apart badly. The pages are falling out. They are too heavy for the binding. It would be wonderful if it was published in Library Binding. We want to order a new copy but I can't see ordering the same binding again as the same thing will happen. It has circulated 43 times since our purchase in Feb. 2004. I can't imagine that the paperback copy would be better. Do you think it is possible it will be republished in Library Binding? Sincerely Jean Shaw, Children's Librarian, Caribou Public Library, Caribou, Maine 04736

We wanted a real educational book about dinosaurs for our son and this was perfect. He will be able to research any kind of dinosaur he can think of. The book is very comprehensive and the picture are wonderful. It is a must have for anyone interested in dinosaurs.

My 7 year old grandson is a dinosaur addict. He already owned umpteen dinosaur books, but he kept checking and rechecking this one from the library. Finally he just said he HAD to have this one to keep with him at all times because it was a BASIC NECESSITY. I guess he meant what he said, since he takes it with him on overnights and on all car trips, even short ones. The information in it is thorough, up-to-date and extremely well organized. The pronunciation guide is especially helpful when disputes arise among adults with antiquated dinosaur knowledge.

My daughter is 12 years old, in 6th grade, and obsessed with dinosaurs. We have been buying books, videos and DVDs on this subject for her since she was four. According to this book's review, it said it was for grades 4 through 8. So I bought it hoping it would have some new (to my daughter) information, of which it had a little, but not too much.

I would, however, recommend this book to a parent if their child is fairly new with their interest in dinosaurs. With that said, my daughter still liked it for the pictures and other info that it offered and, "Hey!", like she said, "It STILL had dinosaurs in it, mom!"

This book is well-written and would make a nice addition to a younger dino-lover's collection of dinosaur books.

My 5-year old is all about dinosaurs, for the same reason we have had the chance to read a lot of books about them. This one is definitely my favorite. It is very informative, and the fact that it is updated (compared to another encyclopedias for kids) makes it a nice tool for learning about what we know so far about dinosaurs (and sometimes how we got to those conclusions). The pictures are pretty cool also, we have learned lots of new fun facts about dinosaurs.