Dinosaur Breakout

The Dinosaur Adventures #2

by Judith Silverthorne

In Dinosaur Hideout, Daniel and Pederson, a reclusive paleontologist living on a neighbouring farm in southwestern Saskatchewan, made a brilliant discovery--the fossil remains of a dinosaur called an Edmontosaurus. Now, local bullies Todd and Craig Nelwin, jealous of all the attention Daniel gets, want to find his hideout and wreck it. When the three scuffle and Daniel hits his head on the rocks, he is whisked out of his own time and into the world of the dinosaurs - Triceratops, Brontosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex; a world of giant redwoods, huge ferns, and dragonflies nearly a metre wide.

When another equally strange shock brings him back to his own time, Daniel at first doesn't realize that he carries a small piece of the past--a bit of redwood bark. Whenever he touches it, he will return to the dinosaurs' world. Daniel makes two more unplanned but thrilling trips to the past. He sees the most marvellous, and horrifying, sights and makes new discoveries about dinosaurs. On a final trip, Daniel has two unwilling "hitchhikers" with him--the Nelwins. Daniel isn't the only one who learns from their sudden shared adventure.

Judith Silverthorne is a multiple-award winning Regina-based writer. She is the author of seven Coteau novels for young readers, including: The Secret of Sentinel Rock, The Secret of the Stone House, Dinosaur Hideout, Dinosaur Breakout, Dinosaur Stakeout and Dinosaur Blackout.

180 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2004

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

When young paleontology enthusiast Daniel Bringham hits his head on a stone while being bullied by the Nelwin brothers, he finds himself transported back in time to the Cretaceous Period some 65-146 million years in the past. Encountering an Edmontosaurus, the dinosaur whose skeleton he and his neighbor Mr. Pederson discovered in Dinosaur Hideout , as well as a terrifying Tyrannosaurus Rex, Daniel escapes back to his own time just before disaster strikes. Here, in modern-day Saskatchewan, his adventures continue...

This second installment in Judith Silverthorne's Dinosaur Adventures series should appeal to intermediate readers who love dinosaurs and dinosaur-fantasy. The proliferation of series such as Dinotopia and Dinoverse demonstrate that this is not an insignificant demographic. Although I enjoy dinosaur tales as much as the next girl, I originally picked up Dinosaur Breakout because I love Saskatchewan-based Coteau Books, which published it. But Silverthorne's well-written time-slip fantasy soon convinced me to keep reading for its own sake.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel, a child paleontologist, discovered a way to go back in time to the late Cretaceous period. Later, the two bullies, Todd and Craig Nelwin, invaded Daniel's hideout, but they time-traveled with Daniel mistakenly. They survived with Daniel's knowledge of dinosaurs and his experience of surviving in the Cretaceous period, and managed to come back safely.

I like this book because it shows that you have to stay calm when making critical decisions.