Savage Dinosaurs of South Dakota

American Chillers #34

by Johnathan Rand

Autumn McLachlan and her best friend, Brady Vanguard, love dinosaurs. They absolutely love them. They read dinosaur books, watch dinosaur movies, and know a lot about these prehistoric creatures that existed millions of years ago. When famed inventor Samuel Putnam announces that he's going to build a dinosaur park in Rapid City, South Dakota--complete with lifelike, mechanical dinosaurs--Autumn and Brady have good reason to be excited. It will be like traveling back in time, millions of years, to witness these incredible beasts that once ruled the earth. And because these dinosaurs aren't real, surely nothing could ever go wrong. At the grand opening, Autumn and Brady are going to discover just how dangerous Mr. Putnam's park can be.

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Christopher Wright is the author of dozens of horror fiction books for children and young adults. He writes under the pseudonyms Johnathan Rand and Christopher Knight. Almost all of Wright's books (save American Chillers) take place in his home state of Michigan.

Reviews

[Howie Boyle · Rating 1 out of 5]

I absolutely hatted this terrible book. I had to read it because my teacher won't allow me to read Harry Potter. I would rate it 0 stars but the lowest is 1. I would rather feed this to my dog then read it again. My favorite part was the ending because I could stop reading it.
This book is very poorly written. It feels like a 4th grader wrote it. The characters talk like robots and the sentences don't flow smoothly from each thought. I got lost reading this book a couple of times. I can't wait to read more books from this collection.

[Max Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

And yet...another dinosaur book. I just want to eat some cookies.

But then, that's what makes Rand such a genius. We expect him to come up with a new monster, some cool new creature to scare us with, only for him to surprise us by featuring dinosaurs again.

I went to the library and saw the stale old copies of Chillers books they had. You know...the ones that Darren Breve did the cover art for. I think he and Johnathan Rand would be better at working for Walmart loss prevention because I like my fresh new copies.

What's that, hon? You want the... COOKIES??? I don't think you'll like them. Yeah. They're orange.

[Jennifer Amaya · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so creepy. If someone had this book and they like American Chillers, I’d suggest to read it right away. My favorite part was when Autumn and Brady get chased by the dinosaurs in the museum. Anyone who likes scary stories should read this.

If you were them, what would you do ?

[Kenneth BLANCK · Rating 5 out of 5]

My second facriote book from him!!!!!! I LOVE DINOS!!! lolololololpolololol.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book because the dinosour park was cool and theres a good amount of action so thats why I liked this book.

[Khaia · Rating 4 out of 5]

: The book i have read is called American Chillers “Savage Dinosaurs of South Dakota” by Johnathan Rand. Two kids named Autumn and Brady are the main characters in this book. They both love dinosaurs so they go to a live museum that is completely dedicated to them. Their day at the museum was not going to be how they expected. At all. The dinosaurs seem to come alive , and Brady and Autumn have to figure out a way to stop it all. I wouldn’t recommend this book to kids who are older than i am. Although it is a good book, i feel it would not be interesting to older kids.

[LeviSamJuno · Rating 4 out of 5]

10-year-old me would have absolutely loved this book combining my love of dinosaurs and the chapter books I used to read. It's written in a very similar style to R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series, but the cliffhangers at the ends of the chapters tend to actually lead to something that builds up the story. Several times throughout the book I found myself gasping and reaching to quickly turn the page. I definitely want to read the rest of the series just to get that feeling again of ploughing through a book.

From my adult perspective, the story was a bit predictable, redundant at times, and had quite a bit of deus ex machina. But, that's par for the course for the target audience of this book (which is not adult me; inner child me loved it).

I would recommend this to any middle schoolers or reluctant readers, particularly for boys who find it hard to get into reading.

[Demitrius]

The book I currently finished reading was American Chillers Savage Dinosaurs of South Dakota. I liked the book because it gave a real world situation of electronics. The setting was mainly in a dinosaur park in Rapid City, South Dakota. The characters were Autumn and her friend Brady. The conflict was that there was a virus that made all of robotic dinosaurs go crazy. I recommend this book to who like American Chillers or the author Johnathan Rand because the great plot makes this book and all of the others very interesting.

[Chase A · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was actually very good and in my opinion,it was good enough to where I wont spoil it for you (not without precautionary measures,of course)the robotic dinosaurs in south Dakota go,"haywire",
and they are frightened by an Allosaurus,which tries to follow them,a Tyrannosaurus Rex escaped with other dinosaurs,but someone shut the dinosaurs all down.

[Jheyboer]

its about this girl named autemn and her friend. They really like dinosaurs and this new dinosaur muesium opens up and they find out it gets out of control when dinosaurs get loose in rapid city autemn and her friend have to save the day before they distroy the city

[Andrew Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a very good book and was very scary. I thought that it was scary when the dinosaurs were chasing them at night.

I recommend this book for everyone because there's no bad language and overall it's a awesome book.