Think fast with A.J. and Andrea from My Weird School!
Did you know that the biggest dinosaur was probably six stories high and half a football field long? Did you know that Utah is the only place in the world where it’s legal to hunt dinosaurs?!
Learn more weird-but-true dinosaur facts with A.J. and Andrea from Dan Gutman’s bestselling My Weird School series. This all-new series of nonfiction books features hundreds of hysterical facts, plus lots of photos and illustrations.
Whether you're a kid who wants to learn more about dinosaurs or simply someone who wants to know the name for fossilized dinosaur poop, this is the book for you!
With more than 30 million books sold, the My Weird School series really gets kids reading!
The author of over 80 books in a little over a decade of writing, Dan Gutman has written on topics from computers to baseball. Beginning his freelance career as a nonfiction author dealing mostly with sports for adults and young readers, Gutman has concentrated on juvenile fiction since 1995. His most popular titles include the time-travel sports book Honus and Me and its sequels, and a clutch of baseball books, including The Green Monster from Left Field. From hopeful and very youthful presidential candidates to stunt men, nothing is off limits in Gutman's fertile imagination. As he noted on his author Web site, since writing his first novel, They Came from Centerfield, in 1994, he has been hooked on fiction. "It was fun to write, kids loved it, and I discovered how incredibly rewarding it is to take a blank page and turn it into a WORLD."
Gutman was born in New York City in 1955, but moved to Newark, New Jersey the following year and spent his youth there.
Has someone ever recommended a book or a movie to you, and then stared at you the whole time you were enjoying it to make sure you were REALLY enjoying it? That was my experience with this work of art. My step daughter recommended it, and if I rate it anything other than 5 stars, she'll be disappointed in me 🤣
Why so many 4’s and 5’s? Because it’s non-fiction at an easy reading level? And written in conversational chapters to keep it “fun” and engage young readers? The reference to this book being a project for a gifted and talented program from narrator Andrea, along with A.J.’s excessive attempts to play dumb/make puns (aka the “fun”), were so frequent the result was a little too cringeworthy for me, especially in the opening chapters.
I still give it a 2.5, because there is some interesting info in there (although not always clearly differentiated from the silly “facts” from A.J., especially for weaker readers who may not always read carefully) and I’m sure some young readers would enjoy this style.
More reluctant readers may be hooked by the silliness of the first half, but stronger readers with a true interest in the informational aspect of this text would enjoy the second half of the book more, where the silliness and content achieve a much better balance.
My five year old loooved this book. It's fun and cute, with perhaps a few words and jokes that I wish he wouldn't use. But overall, it's educational, funny, and left my son wanting more. He even started trying to think up his own dinosaur book.