Dinosaur for a Day

by Jim Murphy

Follows a typical day in the life of a family of Hypsilophodons, a smaller, lesser-known dinosaur whose great speed aided its survival

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

An American author of more than 35 nonfiction and fiction books for children, young adults, and general audiences, including more than 30 about American history. He won the Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 2010 for his contribution in writing for teens. Jim lives in Maplewood, New Jersey, in a hundred-year-old house with his wife Alison Blank, a children’s TV producer and children’s book author and editor, his two talented musician sons, a regal mutt, an African water frog that will live forever, and a house vast collection of books..

Reviews

[Laura (Book Scrounger) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book -- my 4-year-old is on a dinosaur kick, and it seems like most of the dinosaur books we come across are either modern-day factual, involving things like fossils and museums (which is important), or very fictional, using either time travel or anthropomorphic representations. This one seems to bridge the gap, using both facts and the imagination to portray what a day and night in the life of a dinosaur might have been like, without anthropomorphizing any of them in the process, or bringing humans into the story.

I definitely felt drawn in to the story -- there was a fair amount of tension, which reminded me of wild birds, and how they're always watching, vigilant, even skittish at times, expecting the unexpected. So that was interesting, to be reminded of how great that anxiety is and probably was for a dinosaur that was not at the top of the food chain. The mother is also separated from her young and has to defend them, which is also tense, but probably less so than if they'd been anthropomorphized.

The full-page illustrations really help to make it feel real, with lots of shadows and "busy" images, portraying what it might feel like to live in a forest with all kinds of things blocking your vision on all sides.

This would probably not hold the interest of a young preschooler, but my 4-year-old sat through it fine.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lively, realistic illustrations of a prehistoric world, along with a nature adventure story of a small, wary herbivore's day protecting her young, finding food, and escaping predators. Grade school-aged kids who like in-depth examinations of dinosaur life, science, and nature are an obvious audience.

[Christy Roberts · Rating 3 out of 5]

A child might like this more then I did. It tells the day in the life of a dinosaur called Hypsilophodon. I thought the artwork inside was good although they should have reconsidered what color the letter should have been on some of the pages for the words because black letters on Brown print background does not work. I'll probably give this to my cousin for her son.p

[Cws]

JEDINO-Mur

[Deborah Harris]

RL 4.0 GRL-Q

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little long for young readers, but if you can use expressions it may hold their interest. From my standpoint, a very good story and educational in a fun way.