Dinosaurs

by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, National Geographic Kids (Editor)

There's nothing more fascinating than dinosaurs. In this Level 1 reader, youngsters learn all about the terrifying giants that once roamed the Earth—maybe even as close as their own backyard! They'll be wowed by new information and eye-popping illustrations from National Geographic, a trusted source of children's nonfiction content.

National Geographic supports K-12 educators with ELA Common Core Resources.
Visit www.natgeoed.org/commoncore for more information.

Genres: Dinosaurs, Nonfiction, Science, Childrens, Animals, Picture Books, Young Readers

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld is the award-winning author of more than sixty books for children, including DINOSAUR TRACKS, "a great choice for even the most discriminating dinophiles" (School Library Journal); DID DINOSAURS HAVE FEATHERS?, a Children's Book of the Month Club selection, described as "fascinating" by Kirkus Reviews; and DINOSAURS BIG AND SMALL, a 2003 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Book Award winner.

When she's not reading, researching, writing, or editing, Kathleen loves to spend her free time exploring, doing fieldwork, and preparing fossils for her local natural history museums.

Reviews

[Brad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my third National Geographic Reader this week (I have to complete the goodreads reading challenge someway, and what better way than to catch up on the books my kids were reading earlier this year). To my surprise, the quality has been all over the place. I started with Sharks, which was tons of fun, and then I read Trains, which was a steaming pile of crap; Dinosaurs sits right in the middle.

It achieves what it sets out to achieve -- though not necessarily what it should have been achieving. It's a cute, quick intro to dinosaurs and palaeontology, using cheesy jokes, some decent artwork, and plenty of bone photos to entertain its readers.

But the phonetic spellings of dino-names are inconsistent and poor, and Kathy Weidner Zoehfeld spends too much time on her personal obsessions -- palaeontology and the avian descendants of dinos -- to really embrace the world of the dinosaurs. I would much rather have read a book about dinosaurs and the world we think they might have moved through, than this study of the study of dinosaurs, which barely brushes the dust off of the most popular dinos.

I think I am going to (re-)read the Seuss books the kids read next. At least those are all sure to be fun.

[Miloš & Brontë · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miloš: I really liked it.

Pa: Really? You didn't love it?

Miloš: No, I really liked it?

Pa: Interesting. So why didn't you love it?

Miloš: Umm ... cause it wasn't a number three book.

Pa: You mean it wasn't hard enough?

Miloš: No, but that would still be easy for me because I've already read a really huge book.

Pa: What book was that?

Miloš: Iron Giant

Pa: That is a pretty big book. You liked stuff in it, though.

Miloš: I liked how the dinosaurs walked on their toes. How their necks were curved.

Pa: Why were their necks curved?

Miloš: I don't know. They didn't explain it.

Pa: You just thought it looked cool?

Miloš: Yeah. I liked how they call the dinosaurs that eat meat, "meat eaters."

Pa: Is there another name for that?

Miloš: Not really.

Pa: Let me look. *I take a peek* Hmmm ... I see what you mean about it being too easy. They should have told you that meat eaters are carnivores.

Miloš: I see. I just wanted it to be harder. I cruised through it and I didn't want to. Apparently they wanted younger kids to understand it.

Pa: Would you recommend it to younger kids?

Miloš: Mmmm ... yeah ... well, I really think it should take the place of Safari because Safari is stupid and even though younger kids like stupid stuff, sometimes, this is better.

Pa: I see.

Miloš: I liked everything about it, though.

Pa: Would you read it again?

Miloš: Yeah.

Pa: But you're reading what next?

Miloš: Hardy Boys.

Pa: Which one?

Miloš: Which one is the first one?

Pa: Go find it and hurry back. *off he goes*

Miloš: *and he's back with the book* The Tower Treasure.

Pa: Neat. Hope you like it.

Miloš: Me too.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Summary
This is a book about dinosaurs. Along with many other National Geographic kids books, this one has many captivating pictures along with great passages telling all about dinosaurs.

Evaluation
This book gives insight into a dinosaur's existence long ago. This book has information on many different kinds of dinosaurs and where they might have lived.

Teaching Idea
I would use this book in a science lesson on extinction. I would explain what they new vocabulary word means and then I would have them brainstorm if there are any other animals they have heard that are also extinct. I would let them do their own research and write an essay on it.

[Happy LittleReaders · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you want to know EVERYTHING about dinosaurs? This book has everything you need to know about them! Did you know that dinosaurs lived for about 165 million years? That’s almost 80 times more than the time humans have been on this planet! Find out more Dino-tastic facts about dinosaurs in this book!
Reason for recommendation: This book teaches kids all about dinosaurs. It also has very simple language that will get everything across to kids.

[ReadingMama · Rating 4 out of 5]

¿Piensas que sería divertido jugar con Tiranosaurio Rex? NOOO~~ porque está extinto~ Pero haría un dinosaurio pequeño. Microraptor era muy pequeño y tenían plumas~~ Este libro es sobre todos los dinosaurios con dibujos maravillosos~~ No necesita ir al museo para mirar huesos grandes y escalofriantes. Porque aprenden sobre los paleontólogos y herbívoros y carnívoros aquí.

[Ashley Buchanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dinosaurs are such a fun subject. This book is kid friendly and gives them the information they need and want without getting to detailed. The pictures are great and keep you wanting to look at the next page. This book is good for all ages.

[Alyssa Lundy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Age group: k-1
Genre: informational

This book is a great way to teach kids about things that no longer exist today. To explain to kids why they aren’t here is kinda hard but with this book they will understand. It even taught me a few things I didn’t know about dinosaurs.

[Rin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Children's books usually get a 3 unless they're amazing or awful.

Good practice in reading Spanish. Not sure I learned any new words that'll stick but it was fun. I'll read more. I'd love to find some of these for my classroom in different languages!

[Mellanie C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this to the kids at summer day camp. The boys especially really enjoyed it.

[Dale Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this 📔📑📗📘📙

I know a lot about Dinosaurs !!!!!!!! & I know what a contaturs it is a meat er a meager is a conniver

[Whitney Leanhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contained so much information about dinosaurs and gave you everything you need to know. One fact I learned while reading this book was that all dinosaurs no matter size walked on tiptoes.

[Caitlyn Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pictures is this books were fantastic! I also loved the facts that were given. I learn so much new information from this short little book!

[Eliot Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great for building Spanish dinosaur vocabulary. Quick facts about fossils, excavation, and a few dinosaurs (smallest and largest). Includes photos and illustrations.

[Sidsel Sander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fin lille fag"bog".

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Obviously this book was a little short but for the type of book it is, it's very well done.

[Hannah Joyce]

Grade level 3. Explore the Jurassic Period when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

F&P level I. Promotes macro-evolution. Sorry, I don’t believe chickens evolved from dinosaurs. Can anyone direct me to a young children’s book with a biblical view of dinosaurs?

[The Book Box]

I checked this out from the school library and read it to my mom.

[Nicole Sampson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has lots of detailed pictures and writing. My six-year-old son loves it.

[Kelly Chester · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an educational book

[KaitandMaddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maddie really enjoyed the jokes.

[Nancy Korb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a childs book that I read to put in my LFL. It was interesting enough that kids might enjoy it.

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here's what my son and I have to say. For more of our reviews, please visit us at http://motherdaughterbookreviews.com

SON SAYS:

What I liked and disliked about:

I’ve read lots of dinosaur books before but this one taught me new things like dinosaurs didn’t have fur and I learned about what they ate. They also talked about dinosaurs I had never heard of before like the Buitreraptor. I had also never seen the Microraptor before. I thought it was cool that they showed how big a dinosaur was compared to a person. When I saw the picture of the Argentinosaurus, I thought it was an elephant with no face. I also didn’t know that a T-Rex’s tooth makes a good knife.

My favorite dinosaur is the Ankylosaurus because it’s cool how it has spikes and a hammer tail thingy-ma-jigger. My second favorite dinosaur is the Triceratops because it’s cool how it has giant horns and a shield on its head and it’s funny that it has a mouth like a beak. My third favorite is the Stegosaurus because it’s cool how it looks like it has leaves on its back. My fourth favorite dinosaur is the T-Rex because it’s the biggest meat eater. My fifth favorite is the Edmontosaurus because they can make a stampede when there’s a bunch together running.

There is nothing I didn’t like about the book.

My bottom line:

I loved, loved, loved this book. I would recommend it to little boys my age or 6 years old.

MOM SAYS:

What I liked and disliked about:

For followers of our reviews, you’ll note that this book was featured as one of the selections in the Children’s Non-Fiction week of our Summer Reading Weekly Book Giveaways. Well, Lo and Behold! What should we spot on our latest visit to the library but National Geographic Kids: Dinosaurs! :D

Well, my son and I got pretty excited when we saw this book and did not fail to deliver! As mentioned by my son above, we have read several dinosaur books, but I would rate this one at the very top. It provides the right combination of real photographs of Paleontologists digging up fossils of dinosaur bones and coloured illustrations of 15 different dinosaurs representing the well known (e.g., T-Rex, Triceratops) and some we had never run across before (e.g., Microraptor, Anchiornis).

But I think that what really sets this book apart from other dinosaur books that we’ve read is that there seems to be just the right amount of information. I find that most dinosaur books have so much detail about each dinosaur that it is quite easy for kids to quickly lose interest. In this book, they provide very basic facts about some of the more popular dinosaurs:

Tyrannosaurus rex (ty-RAN-oh-SORE-us REX) was one of the biggest meat-eaters that ever walked the Earth.

Triceratops (tri-SER-a-tops) had a huge head with three large horns and a wide neck frill.

Anklylosaurus (AN-kye-loh-SORE-us) was an armored dinosaur. It had a solid bone club at the end of its tail.

Oh, and can I just say that I appreciate the help with the pronunciation of some of these beasts? Well, that just might be the French in me with all the funny accents in the wrong place coming out!

Interestingly, when my son was discussing his favorite dinosaurs above and the reasons why they were his favorite, these are exactly the features that he remembered. Further, with regards to the information provided, there are unique scientific facts about dinosaurs presented in this book and they are presented in very simplified, easy-to-remember ways.

Dinosaur Skin: Sometimes dinosaur skin left prints in mud. The mud hardened and saved the prints. These fossils tell us that some dinosaurs were scaly, like lizards. And some dinosaurs had feathers, like birds. [PHOTOS AND ILLUSTRATIONS PROVIDED].

Worthy of a quick mention is that there is a glossary of some of the terms used in the book at the very back: extinct, fossil, museum, and Paleontologist. Nice touch!

My bottom line:

My son and I really, really, really enjoyed this book. For his age group, I would say that this is THE dinosaur book. I would recommend it to young dinosaur lovers aged 4+.

[Julia Jasztal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mommy's review from 11/7/11 -


Unless the child you plan on giving/reading this to is learning to read at about, say, two years old, pass on this.
I'm usually quite forgiving about dino information being basic. Just because Julia is a self-proclaimed dinosaur expert doesn't mean all kids are after all. But this is far, far, too easy for even a toddler. Unless that toddler is just now being introduced to dinosaurs as a whole, with this book.
I support National Geographic and N.G. Kids but this is a shame in every sense of the word.
"But not to worry. All the big, scary dinosaurs died off long, long ago." Well thanks. I wasn't real sure of that myself.
"The dinosaur bones were buried safely in rock for a long time." Wow.
"Bones were on the inside of a dinosaur." I'm not even sure what to say about that quote. Julia looked at me when I read that, raised her eyebrows, and asked me where we'd gotten this at.
There is a nice photo of a skin print fossil that you don't see in a lot of children's books on dinos. I'll give them that. They even featured one or two dinos not well known which was shocking since the info was bland at best. The Buitreraptor was mentioned with the pronunciation which goes a long way, even for adults. This dino's name is pronounced 'BWEE-tree-RAP-tore'.
There's a "Dinosaur Superstars" two page spread where only six of the most well known dinos are shown with a fact on each that a three year old would know.
There's a simple size comparison with you and a Microraptor and you and an Argentinosaurus also which kids like to see.
One or two facts are sprinkled in that aren't so well known. The fact that dinos walked on their toes is one. That they had S-shaped necks is another.
As another reviewer stated the book doesn't even mention that meat-eaters are called carnivores and plant-eaters herbivores. Much less does it go into other types.
The Oviraptor is shown being a good mother with no info on how the dino got it's mistaken name. Pretty basic, but very interesting, information for any kid interested in dinosaurs.
I'll put it like this. We read this last night before bed. Yesterday during the day my 6 year old daughter wrote and illustrated a book about dinosaurs. She featured a long-neck, an Elasmosaurus, a Triceratops, and a T. Rex. In it there is more information, more dino specific information, than in this book.
Basically, this should be called National Geographic Babies if anything and it should NOT be targeted toward a beginner reader. A beginner could probably read a lot of this book. But the fact remains that they won't WANT to because of the bland, already known information they'd be forced to read.

[Michaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dinosaurs is a very beginner book that would be great for younger children. It discusses what dinosaurs are and some of the different kinds of them. It also gives a lot of great vocabulary words that will help students understand dinosaurs better. It shows the students pictures as well of a human compared to a dinosaurs and the different sizes of them. I think a great pair would be Tea Rex. This is a little kids book and talks about having a dinosaur come over for tea. In the book Dinosaurs it talks about having a pet dinosaur wouldn't be a good idea, especially around dinner time. In Tea Rex they have invited him over for tea but the dinosaur doesn't always behave himself. They had several refreshments for Rex but he ended up trying to eat their teddy bear. Luckily Rex realized he shouldn't eat that. The Rex makes some big messes as any dinosaur would do. This would be good to compare with the Dinosaur book on size and if he could really fit in your house for tea. Little kids love imaginary ideas and having a dinosaur over for tea is a great one. Then Rex ends up inviting them over for tea with all his dinosaur friends. To compare with the Dinosaur book you could ask the students if they remember the names of the dinosaurs that are at the tea party and how big they would be. I think these would be good because the Tea Rex is a fun interesting book that any kid would love and the Dinosaur book is really educational for younger students.

[Lauren]

Fiction Twin Text:
Dinosaurs Love Underpants
By: Claire Freedman
Copyright: 2009

Rationale: I chose to link these two books to focus on the difference between fiction and non-fiction literature. Dinosaurs by Kathy Zoefeld offers information about these prehistoric creatures at a primary level, while still including many non-fiction features. Dinosaurs Love Underpants in a colorful and imaginative fictional book that playfully talks about how the dinosaurs actually became extinct fighting over underpants. It is important for students to leave first grade understanding the parts and characteristics of both types of books and I feel like these books contrast enough that students will be able to build a foundational idea about the differences.

Text Structure: Description

Non-Fiction Strategy: I think looking at these two books in particular I could easy do a text and graphic feature sort as a whole group. I would do this using a venn diagram. Together we would look through parts of the books such as table of contents, index, photographs, illustrations, etc. I especially like this activity because it allows students the chance to see the overlap between the two genres in terms of features.

Citation: (2011, October 7). Horn Book Guide. http://www.booksinprint.com.leo.lib.u...

[Samantha Groth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dinosaurs is the last non-fiction book I choose. This book has many pictures of dinosaurs and simple words to help explain what these dinosaurs did. One thing I love about this book is it had "word bites" on pages that defined words that students might not know. I also really enjoyed that it showed students how to pronounce dinosaur species names (we all know how difficult that can be!) This is a informal non-fiction book. It is based on fun informative facts which makes it an informal nonfiction book!
I think this book would be great to give to pre-k to first grade students who have an interest in dinosaurs! I paired this book with the fiction book, Danny and the Dinosaur. This book works really with the non-fiction book, Dinosaurs, because it helps brings those species to life in character form! Students have an interest in dinosaurs and could possibly wonder what it would be like living with them, Danny and the Dinosaur shows all the mischief that could happen!

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 5 year old enjoyed this book, but it raised more questions than it answered. I realize it is trying to keep things simple for the young audience, but I found it confused my child due to how many terms were briefly mentioned in passing, yet never elaborated on or explained. A good beginning book, but be prepared to google anything that requires more explanation (such as curved necks and birds being modern dinosaurs).

[Sammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I’m not very into dinosaurs myself, the kid I tutored seemed to be a big fan. I read this book to him, it had some interesting information. If I haven’t learned about these little facts from other readings, and had more interest in dinosaurs, may have rated this higher.

I’ve heard many of the informational facts before though, still a nice little reminder. There were photos and illustrations throughout too. Not bad.

[Bari · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 4 year old nephew, like many boys his age, is interested in Dinosaurs. While many of the books of the market are to sophisticated for him, this one seemed to be perfect. The language the author uses keeps the reader interested, informs them about dinosaurs and yet is simple enough for the youngest reader. This makes a nice read aloud book for those non readers as well.