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Dinoverse
I was a teenage T. Rex!
Survival of the fittest has always been the rule at Wetherford Junior High. So when Bertram Phillips's science fair project sends his mind back 67 million years, he's well prepared. After all, as the class brain, he's learned how to avoid predators.
But Bertram's not prepared for his new tanklike, spike-backed Ankylosaurus form. He's become a dinosaur--and so have three other fellow students.
Mike, the star quarterback who's never had much of a killer instinct, must wrestle with the hunger pangs of a T. Rex. Candayce, the beauty queen, is forced to suffer the thunder thighs of a Leptoceratops, while the morose Janine now soars blissfully on the wings of a Pterodactyl.
With prehistoric perils at every turn, Bertram, Mike, Candayce, and Janine band together to find their way back home in what were once their own back yards.
Theirs is an amazing, wildly comical, and very human journey...through the Age of Dinosaurs.
Survival of the fittest has always been the rule at Wetherford Junior High. So when Bertram Phillips's science fair project sends his mind back 67 million years, he's well prepared. After all, as the class brain, he's learned how to avoid predators.
But Bertram's not prepared for his new tanklike, spike-backed Ankylosaurus form. He's become a dinosaur--and so have three other fellow students.
Mike, the star quarterback who's never had much of a killer instinct, must wrestle with the hunger pangs of a T. Rex. Candayce, the beauty queen, is forced to suffer the thunder thighs of a Leptoceratops, while the morose Janine now soars blissfully on the wings of a Pterodactyl.
With prehistoric perils at every turn, Bertram, Mike, Candayce, and Janine band together to find their way back home in what were once their own back yards.
Theirs is an amazing, wildly comical, and very human journey...through the Age of Dinosaurs.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
2 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Scott Ciencin
179 books78 followersScott Ciencin was a New York Times best-selling novelist of 90+ books. He wrote adult and children's fiction and worked in a variety of mediums including comic books. He created programs for Scholastic Books, designed trading cards, consulted on video games, directed and produced audio programs & TV commercials, and wrote in the medical field about neurosurgery and neurology. He first worked in TV production as a writer, producer and director. He lived in Sarasota, Florida with his wife (and sometimes co-author) Denise.
(Also wrote under the pseudonyms Nick Baron and L.J. Oliver)
(Also wrote under the pseudonyms Nick Baron and L.J. Oliver)
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 7, 2012
I quite enjoyed this book! I think I really would have loved it when I wanted to be a paleontologist :-) I thought the relationships among the four students-turned-dinosaurs were well-drawn, and the dinosaur details were fascinating.
September 20, 2009
It's sad that there aren't more reviews for this book, because this is really a great book!
I will admit that this has been on my bookshelf for the last decade, and I was never really looking forward to it -- something about the title, and the cover, and the description seemed just a bit less that exciting. But once you crack it open and read a chapter or two, it's totally enthralling.
This book is geared toward the middle school reader. It's four main characters are junior high students [two boys, two girls:] who are transported back in time through a miraculous accident by a machine made by the brainy student of the bunch -- but there's a twist to this time-travel tale ... the students are in the bodies of dinosaurs!
Being written for the student, there are some lessons to be learned, but Ciencin does a fantastic job of weaving the lessons nicely into the plot.
Ciencin is a wonderful writer for youth. I bought this book based on how much I enjoyed his books in the "Dinotopia" series.
When I finished the book, I handed it to my 12 year old son who might be labeled a 'reluctant reader.' He read it through and absolutely loved it. He said that it was "Fantastic!" and that he learned a lot, too! He said, the only bad thing is..."He didn't write a sequel! How can anybody who writes this good NOT write a sequel to it!" He's so upset about there not being a sequel that he's decided to read it again.
Highly recommended!
I will admit that this has been on my bookshelf for the last decade, and I was never really looking forward to it -- something about the title, and the cover, and the description seemed just a bit less that exciting. But once you crack it open and read a chapter or two, it's totally enthralling.
This book is geared toward the middle school reader. It's four main characters are junior high students [two boys, two girls:] who are transported back in time through a miraculous accident by a machine made by the brainy student of the bunch -- but there's a twist to this time-travel tale ... the students are in the bodies of dinosaurs!
Being written for the student, there are some lessons to be learned, but Ciencin does a fantastic job of weaving the lessons nicely into the plot.
Ciencin is a wonderful writer for youth. I bought this book based on how much I enjoyed his books in the "Dinotopia" series.
When I finished the book, I handed it to my 12 year old son who might be labeled a 'reluctant reader.' He read it through and absolutely loved it. He said that it was "Fantastic!" and that he learned a lot, too! He said, the only bad thing is..."He didn't write a sequel! How can anybody who writes this good NOT write a sequel to it!" He's so upset about there not being a sequel that he's decided to read it again.
Highly recommended!
February 28, 2023
This one was a case of me just not being the target audience. Set in the current world, a young boy (12-ish years old) invents a machine for a science fair (but really it's just broken computer monitors he put lights into). Somehow this machine actually "works", but not in the way the boy intended: He and some other junior high school students end up in the age of dinosaurs... as dinosaurs.
Too much of the first part of the book was just the kid in school (yawn), but even once they became dinosaurs, the writing was just too young for me.
Too much of the first part of the book was just the kid in school (yawn), but even once they became dinosaurs, the writing was just too young for me.
April 26, 2018
This is actually the second time I've read this book. I had the first 3 books since I was a kid and loved them. Scott Ciencin was one of my favorite authors at that time, but as a kid I was only able to convince my parents to help me so much with my book addiction. Now as an adult I was able to buy the rest of the series and travel down memory lane of how much I enjoyed this book. Cannot wait to reread #2.
June 14, 2016
Asher (10yo) read. "Really cool how four kids get stuck in prehistoric times and how they try to their dinosaur bodies. It was also pretty funny."
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews