Animals of a Bygone Era: An Illustrated Compendium

by Maja Säfström

A beautifully illustrated collection of fascinating, surprising, and funny facts about extinct animals.

In the past, amazing and strange animals roamed the earth, including giant sea scorpions, tiny horses, enormous sloths, and fierce "terror birds." These and many more fantastic extinct animals are illustrated in this whimsical collection by Swedish artist Maja Säfström.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Science, History, Nature, Art, Childrens

114 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 4, 2017

Reviews

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for a whimsical, beautifully illustrated, and just plain fun coffee-table book, Maja Säfström's Animals of a Bygone Era could be just the thing. The book is short but very sweet, with quaint drawings and mischievous comments that make it a thoroughly enjoyable read for kids or adults.

I wish I could show a few examples of the inside pages, but so far the publisher hasn't released any, so I'll do my best to describe the format. Each animal gets two pages, with one or more creatures, short handwritten comments pointing to the animal. Often the animal itself has a few comments; for example, the Eomanis, a predecessor of the modern pangolin, has some notes on the page saying that it started as a vegetarian but ended up eating insects. The page has the following dialogue:
Pangolin: "Hi guys..."
Insects: "You're just gonna eat this leaf, right?"
Pangolin: "Well."

If you're in the mood for a whimsical picture book that will make for an enjoyable read for kids and adults, then Animals of a Bygone Era is well worth a look.

I received an advanced reader copy of this ebook through Netgalley from the publisher, Ten Speed Press, in exchange for my honest review. Thanks!

~~Cross-posted on BookLikes.~~

[Adelína čte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pokud mě sledujete už nějakou tu delší dobu, tak jste si asi všimli, že mám pro tyhle dětské roztomilé knížečky slabost😄a když jsou ještě v něčem poučné, tak je prostě musím mít a číst, tudíž tahle série byla sázka na jistotu. A ty pastelové barvičky obálek😍

Každá dvojstránka v Ilustrovaném atlasu nejpodivnějších pravěkých tvorů je věnována jednomu tvorovi, ilustrace od Maji Säfströmové jsou boží, jednoduché a ňuňaté.
U všech pravěkých zvířat je tu několik zajímavých faktů, v jakém období a v oblasti žila a některá jsou obohacena o vtipnou hlášku, průpovídku.
Autorka se rozhodla schválně vynechat dinosaury, díky čemuž dostaly příležitost i další (mnohdy zajímavější) druhy.
Haikouichthys, Quetzalcoatlus, Sivatherium, Coryphodon, Platybelodon, Titanoboa, Helicoprion a plno dalších.

[Book Z Tobą · Rating 5 out of 5]

trochę się zaplułam ze śmiechu. ups.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wonderful book contains some superb quirky illustrations of animals that long ago went extinct. I found it fascinating to read, very few of the animals were known to me, a few I knew about from watching nature docs about animals of the past. A few have very little known about them and the drawings are interpretations on what fossil evidence we have. Travelling back in time to when these animals roamed the earth would be very scary indeed, the size of some of the animals is down-right mad...a scorpion the size of a man? Count me out.

Maja has included some funny comments with the drawings, usually along the lines of the animal defending it's oddities. They give you a good chuckle.

A couple of facts are also included with each animal and this is where the book fails a bit for me, having a few more facts per page would make you pause and examine the illustrations more, I did keep catching myself whizzing through the book at times.

Still this is wonderful book to read and I highly recommend you give it a go.

[muthuvel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Elasmosaurus, Titanoboa, Moa, Terror birds, Giant Sea Scorpions, Walking Whales, Shiva's Beast, Horned Gophers, Basilosaurus, Woolly Mammoths, Tasmanian Tigers, Giant saddle Tortoises and many more creatures that we almost know nothing about. Surprising to know about a few who managed to survive killer asteroids, post pluvial era of heavy rainfalls, Earthquakes, Dark Ice ages and eventually Ubeen succumbed to pity humans.

It's a very informative book on paleontology and history of our ancestors or maybe our ancestors' ancestors. Those illustrations of Maja are too quirky and adorable. Sad these creatures aren't alive now.

The book will be published by April 2017 and i hope to get a hardcopy for my adorable collection.



~ I'm thankful to Netgalley and Ten speed Press, USA for this advance copy.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet little book of illustrations of extinct animals, from one of the earliest to some that overlapped with humans, such as the dodos. She deliberately excluded dinosaurs ("Wait, what?") in favor of lesser-known critters. For the ones I know, the paleontology is accurate, but the real attraction is her charming, cartoon-like illustrations, and the whimsical (imaginary) remarks from some of her subjects. From Leptictidium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptict..., an extinct rabbit-like animal who left no descendants: "Too bad, because we were really cute." A nice gift book.

Incidentally, I fact-checked Basilosaurus, , since it's a *whale*. The discoverer thought it was some sort of reptile, hence "saurus." And I confirmed the vertebrae as furniture bit (p.59).

Here are a few samples, at her website:
http://www.majasbok.com/new-book-anim...

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adorable illustrations and great facts!

I feel like a Coryphodon most days (they had the smallest brain to body ratio of any mammal ever)

[Demeter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tentokrát prehliadky bizarností sveta dávno minulého. Sa zasmejete a možno vám niektorých zvieratiek či predchodcov zvierat bude ľúto. #trebacitat!

[By Jaji · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zem ukrýva tajomstvá, ktoré ľudstvo nikdy neodhalí. Môže len náznakom vedieť, čo mohlo byť a ako všetko fungovalo. Ale nikdy nebudeme vedieť všetko a to ma veľmi fascinuje. Prosím si podobných kníh ešte viac. Ilustrácie priblížia čitateľovi podávané informácie hravejšou formou.

Každá dvojstrana obsahuje ilustráciu prehistorického zvieraťa a aj informácie o jeho anatómii alebo fyziológii. V ľavom rohu sa nachádza obdobie, kedy sa vyskytovali na Zemi a aj lokalita. Všetko dotvára milá poznámka alebo vtip.

V celej knihe nenájdete ani jedného dinosaura, čo ma trochu teší. Viaceré encyklopédie o prehistorických zvieratách, ktoré som chytila do rúk, boli o dinosauroch alebo mamutoch a podobných stvoreniach. Tu dostali priestor aj tie menej známejšie, čo ma prinútilo zamyslieť sa… ako toto všetko môžeme vedieť? Ako môžeme vedieť, že Opabinia mal na hlave päť očí… alebo že Macrauchenia bol cicavec, ktorý vyzeral ako dnešná ťava?

Viac na: https://www.jajibloguje.sk/najcudesne...

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was very humorous, but not in a guffaw sort of way. I never knew about these prehistoric animals, but I think that most people wouldn't have heard of them. The drawings are simple, as are the descriptions.

[Clare O'Beara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beginning with the earliest sea creatures and moving forwards, omitting the much publicised dinosaurs in order to give other creatures some exposure, this little book cheerfully displays various extreme, extraordinary and extinct animals.

The cartoon sketches (black and white) in some cases compare modern creatures for size, like the short-faced kangaroo with red kangaroo, and all come with a place and date for the fossils or stuffed specimens as the case may be. For the dodo and thylacine appear here as well; once the humans and large animals co-existed, like the mammoth, matters went downhill for the megafauna and smaller creatures. No lecture is given about the need to conserve vanishing wildlife but young readers should be well able to make that connection.

I enjoyed the read which is suitable for any age.
I downloaded an ARC from Net Galley. This is an unbiased review.

[Jeimy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maja Säfström's somewhat whimsical illustrations perfectly accompany tidbits about animals that no longer roam our planet.

[Bokbabbel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastiska böcker, även om det är lättare att minnas fskta om djur man länner till (förra boken).
Stundvis försvann en del av bilden och/eller texten in i bindningen av boken, det var synd.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is adorable! Safstrom’s illustrations are wonderful and bound to spark curiosity.

[Dita Baarová · Rating 5 out of 5]

Já tuhle sérii prostě miluju. A nevím, jestli je to i pro menší, ale tak nějak doufám, že jednou si to budu prohlížet s dítětem, kterého ty malůvky budou taky bavit. Doufám, že budou další!

[Elizabeth Mellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very cute! Loved the illustrations of long ago (and some not so long ago) animals and learned some new facts even though there is not much text. My 9 year old also really enjoyed it.

[Petra | LooneyCZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Op��t moc hezky ilustrované a zajímavé, ale atlas zvířat se nám líbil o něco víc.

[Kristína · Rating 5 out of 5]

Podobne ako prvá Majina knižka, aj táto je graficky nádherná a poučná. Na tejto sa mi obzvlášť páči datovanie, čiže v rohu strany si môžete všimnúť, kedy zviera žilo. A ide to chronologicky!
Opäť pre malých aj veľkých!

[Anusha Narasimhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and amusing book with brilliant illustrations. Highly recommended for kids. This would also serve as a good coffee table book. A delight to read!

Note - I received a free copy of the book from the publisher. This has not influenced my review in any way.

[Lauren James · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a lovely, humorous, carefully illustrated book. Just the right mix of fact and fun to keep both children and adults paying attention. This would be such a nice christmas gift!

[Man · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5

[Adri266 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Za mna trosku slabsia ako prva cast, ale stale zaujimava, putava, pekne obrazky, mile citanie.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Whimsical” is probably the best single word to describe Animals of a Bygone Era: An Illustrated Compendium, written and drawn by Maja Safstrom, which runs through a series of extinct animals from 550 million years ago (Dickinsonia Costata) to 12, 000 years ago (Saddle-Backed Rodrigues Giant Tortoises). The black-and white drawings are charmingly rough and stylized, doing a good job of clearly depicting the animals with enough if not overwhelming detail. Purists might not care for the facial anthropomorphizing Safstrom often employs, but that’s a small price to pay for what I assume will be a large visual appeal to younger readers. There’s no doubt the artwork is the strength of this book.

That leaves the text, which is definitely the weak link here. To begin with a positive, Safstrom gives her creatures some humorous lines, as when a flightless bird comments that “wings are so overrated” or when another creature, one with a tiny brain, notes “I am not intelligent, but I’m not that smart either.” Most of the text though is pretty pedestrian and even a bit repetitive. And it’s also pretty slight in terms of information, with each drawing basically accompanied a one or two facts, often connected to the creature’s size. And while the parade of creatures moves in chronological order, there’s no sense of context in terms of evolution, other creatures, changes in the world, etc., and even the chronology is left to the reader to pick up on, as that fact is conveyed only by a small little number in the bottom left corner.

Animals of a Bygone Era is a cute book filled with cute, approachable drawings and as such will engage young readers on a visual level, though I’d say it’s constructed more for the lower age levels as older kids will want to delve more in-depth into this fascinating lost world

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A graphic novel about animals in history. There are traces left of the lost world. More than 400 million years ago, Cameroceras existed. The animal, resembling an octopus, was up to nine meters long and fossils can still be seen in walls and stairs of lime stones.

It was an interesting world. There was the Meganeura, dragonflies with 75 cm between their wing tips, living 300 million years ago and Jaekelopterus, giant scorpions, living 380 million years ago, the size of a human. There were flying lizards with 15 meters between their wing tips and swan lizards with seven meters neck.

Cylindraspis Vosmaeri, big turtles, were living in Mauritius until the 1800's. Many species disappeared only a few thousand years ago and I wonder how much humans had to do with it.

I think it is a good idea to do a graphic novel about extinct animals, but I would have liked a little more information about them.

[Andrew Blok · Rating 3 out of 5]

Normally I'm not one to pick up and read a book that proclaims itself a "whimsical collection" because the word whimsical seems to me like a nickname: you can be given it as a descriptor, but not by yourself. Then you're just trying too hard.

This book, however, was delightful for all its whimsy. In a short ten-minute read, Maja Safstrom illustrates some of the weirdest, coolest, most unlikely now-extinct animals (although I'm still holding hope for the Tasmanian Tiger) with two or three short captions, a cute joke, and probably too many exclamation marks. Learn about animals that seem too big, too winged, too squishy or hard, and too terrifying to be real. I laughed, I learned, I felt sorry again for the dodo. I thought, "I should learn to do line drawings like her."

If you see this book, pick it up and page through it. It's fun.

Here's the drawing from the cave bears spread. It's great.

[Lili · Rating 5 out of 5]

From Netgalley for a review:

This book would have been very loved by me as a kid, with adorable illustrations of extinct animals and cute little factoids, what is not to love? The black and white art reminds me a bit of the style of Edward Gorey, but geared towards mostly prehistoric creatures. so this definitely won it some points in my book. As always with these style books I wish there was more information, but since it is geared more towards showcasing the art that makes sense that it is light on information and, well, heavy on art.

[Leigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting introduction for young children to animals that came and went over the course of Earth's history. Dinosaurs are covered extensively in natural history books, so it's good to see the non-dino's getting a look-in. This is mainly a picture book, having only a few short comments per animal, which to me is problematic; there's not much to go on when the inevitable 'why', 'what', and 'how' questions arise. A very basic book, but one that will hopefully engender further interest down the line.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever and cute! But for such a simple format and with its intended audience of kids, it’s important to get the facts straight. This retired science teacher caught a few but there might be more...Dickinsonia was a cool critter but we really don’t know how it ate or that they grew until they died. The fossil evidence for this Ediacaran creature is too limited to make the claims the author does. We also have no way of knowing if the Ambulocetus could only hear under water. There are other mistakes but I would still read this book to my kids, with corrections.

[Kaytlynn Menke]

I received this book as a gift with a few other compendiums, and I absolutely LOVE it. My kindergarteners and preschoolers also just eat it up. They love the handwritten illustrations and simplified/easily written facts about extinct creatures. With this book I was able to lead a wonderful discussion about things alive and dead which is actually a science standard. It helped me introduce some decent vocabulary and the kids still have their own conversations about the bygone animals. love love looooove it.

[Neil Pasricha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is page after page of gorgeous pen-and-ink drawings and descriptions of animals who are extinct and, importantly, are not dinosaurs! I knew a few of them like wooly mammoths and giant moas but the book is a fascinating glimpse into a ton of extinct animals who aren’t featured as three-inch rubber figurines in your kid’s bathtub. We miss you, walrus whale, horned gopher, and giant Siberian unicorn. My only qualm is I wanted way more details than I was getting here. It’s a fun flipper and a great little gifty book.