Dinosaurs: An Engaging Introduction to Dinosaurs Including Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and More

by Gail Gibbons

The perfect book for little hands on that most fascinating of creatures, dinosaurs.

Long ago, there was the Age of Dinosaurs. Tiny explorers can discover the many different types of dinosaurs that existed in the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretacious periods. This sturdy board book will hold up to hours and hours of use as toddlers pore over basic dinosaur facts.

According to The Washington Post, Gail Gibbons "has taught more preschoolers and early readers about the world than any other children's writer-illustrator.” In her experienced hands, the perennially popular subject of dinosaurs gets a clear, simple, and visually appealing treatment for the very youngest readers and listeners.

Genres: Picture Books, Dinosaurs, Nonfiction, Science, Childrens, Animals, History

22 pages, Board Book

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

From gailgibbons.com: I was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1944. Even as a little child, I was always busy putting books together. Sometimes I would bind them with yarn to hold the pages together. I've always loved drawing and painting. I was also a very curious child. My parents tell me that I was always asking lots and lots of questions.

Later, I went on to the University of Illinois, where I studied graphic design. Then I moved to New York City, where I got a job doing artwork for television shows. Eventually I was asked to do the artwork for a children's show. While doing that show, some of the children asked me if I had ever thought of doing children's books. My mind immediately recalled how much I enjoyed doing that type of thing when I was a child. So I put an idea for a book together and right away a publisher bought it. That book was called Willy and His Wheel Wagon. Since then, over 170 books that I have written and illustrated have been published. The type of books I write are non-fiction books. This is because I love researching so much. I get to ask lots of questions, just like when I was a kid. I also get to travel and meet lots of interesting people. While doing research for my book Nature's Green Umbrella: Tropical Rain Forests, I traveled to two islands where there are tropical rain forests, Saba and Dominica. I also had a great time writing and illustrating the book. I get a lot of pleasure from doing the type of work I do.

Reviews

[Loraine]

(Review by Andrew age 8)

This book was very interesting. It told lots of good facts about each of the dinosaurs and taught me how to say their names. I also learned that a person who studies about dinosaurs is called a paleontologist. (That's a hard name to say.) I have a whole lot of plastic dinosaurs and like learning more about them.

[Victoria Ouellette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dinosaurs! By Gail Gibbons is a nonfiction text that gives many details regarding dinosaurs directed at a younger audience. It is in a picture book format so it is more interesting to read than an encyclopedia and gets students interested in nonfiction text. Each page has one to two sentences giving facts about dinosaurs. The pages also feature needed definition and labels on the illustrations to help the reader better understand what she is trying to say. I would recommend this book for second to third graders as it has some complex words in it but it is still a picture book that students would enjoy reading. The illustrations in this book are magnificent and have great realistic details that add to the text. Each dinosaur that is drawn is labelled with its name and also the phonetic pronunciation of it. I would pair this with How Do Dinosaurs Stay Friends? Because students would be able to learn about the dinosaurs in this nonfiction text and relate it to the fictional story by Yolen. These books could be used in both a science lesson and a language arts lesson as the students could pick their own dinosaurs from Dinosaurs! And write their own stories like How Do Dinosaurs Stay Friends? With their own how questions.

[Bekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dinosuars by Gail Gibbons gave the history of dinosaurs, when they lived, and how they lived. It explains that they lived millions and millions of years ago, but also died millions of years ago by some unknown phenomena. The book explains what a paleontologist is, and how they study dinosaurs and find the fossils, and study to find out what happened to the dinosaurs. Along with explaining the history of dinosaurs, the book describes many of the different species of dinosaurs, like the plant-eaters and the meat-eaters, and the big dinosaurs and small dinosaurs.

I give this book 4/5 stars. It was very informational at a kids level, and any little boy or girl who loves dinosaurs will be immersed in the many different species described in this book. I like how it defines the words paeleontologist, and fossil. I also like how when a new species of dinosaur was introduced, below the name was help to pronounce the word, since a lot of dinosaur names are very hard to pronounce.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad to see this nonfiction title updated for the second time. Once again, Gail Gibbons provides interesting facts about dinosaurs, including their classifications, and what most likely happened to many of them. A good choice for a budding paleontologist, this book showcases handsome full-page watercolor illustrations with easy-to-read text, clear labels, and various dinosaurs in action. The final page even shares additional information about dinosaurs, including five different tidbits. A good introduction to the topic, Dinosaurs! will inspire young readers to search for more books on these fascinating prehistoric beasts. One of my favorite Gibbons books, this one is a 3.5 for me, and given the interest that many youngsters have in dinosaurs, it's a must-have for an elementary science classroom library.

[Sara Stelmach · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Dinosaurs” by Gail Gibbons is a nonfiction picture book about Dinosaurs. Each page of this book has about one to two sentences about facts on dinosaurs. The book explains when dinosaurs lived when dinosaurs died, how they make fossils, how fossils are studied and how dinosaurs are grouped into types. The images are done in watercolor and are somewhat unrealistic. However, this is a great book when beginning a lesson on dinosaurs for younger children because it is done in an easy to understand basic manner. The illustrations are more to keep the child engaged rather than actually depicting anatomically correct dinosaurs. This book would be great for an introductory lesson on dinosaurs for children in kindergarten and first grade.

[Kate M. Colby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack borrowed this book from the Oxford Public Library. I picked it because he loves dinosaurs, as do all the men and his father’s family.

At first, Jack was hesitant to read the book, but I got him interested with lots of roaring and excitement. He stood next to me and listen to most of the book, though he did wander around the living room to play for a bit. It has a lot of really interesting facts and I actually learned quite a bit.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The illustration style is interesting but not my favorite. There's a lot of information here, but some of it is not well-defined - "nonbird dinosaur" is referenced a lot, and I didn't really know what it meant.

[Emerson and Theodore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bedtime w Theodore tonight. Factual and informative. Covers all the basics. Good beginner Dino book. Beautiful art.

[Bmack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this new edition of Gail Gibbons Dinosaurs! book. It can read like a picture book with just the right amount of text and colorful illustrations. Young dinosaur lovers will adore this book!

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great children's book that I reread to a friend's daughter who is obsessed with dinos. I appreciated the phonetic pronunciations of the dino names.

[Melissa Shea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informational- This book talks about the up to date theories about the history of dinosaurs and their discoveries.

[Alexandria Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for learning about dinosaurs and fossils!

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Simple language that is easily accessible, but some of the information is out of date.

[Charlie · Rating 2 out of 5]

didnt keep attention

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice addition to the series - the copy I have has been updated slightly. From Peyton.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good, non-overwhelming facts. Pretty good illustrations (not too cartoonish).

[Sojourn & Ransom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sojourn and Ransom learned that dinosaurs probably died from a meteorite.

[Sarah White · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great visual aid if teaching a lesson on dinosaurs, or for a student who is very interested in dinosaurs!

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

In bright illustrations and easy to understand language many different types of dinosaurs are shown with name labels, such as the Tyrannosaurus, the saltasaurus, the triceratops. Interesting and educational information is included throughout and more facts at the end.

[Catherine Page · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gail Gibbons is a prolific author/illustrator whose titles usually provide a basic introduction to a topic for preschool/early elementary students and their parents. Dinosaurs! follows this pattern and can serve as a useful read-aloud for parents or starting place for assignments for early elementary students. This is helpful because some dinosaur books are difficult to read aloud to younger children.

Dinosaurs! explains when dinosaurs lived, how fossils occured, and how paleontologists study fossils. The remainder of the text describes how dinosaurs are divided into types, and gives examples of types of dinosaurs.

The text has one to two sentences in clear type per page.
("Dinosaurs! Dinosaur means 'fearfully great lizard' in Greek.") Notes in smaller type explain finer points ("A FOSSIL is the remains of a plant or animal..." Dinosaur names are given phonetic pronunciations ("Ceratopsians--ser-ra-TOP-see-uns") for the benefit of both adult and student readers. The illustrations are watercolor, and while they clearly depict (scientist's conceptions of) a variety of dinosaurs, they may not have the degree of "realism" that illustrations in some other dinosaur titles, so one might want to pair this with another more lushly illustrated title.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Dinosaurs” by Gail Gibbons is an informational text that is packed with information about dinosaurs. It included details about why the dinosaurs were on Earth and the different kinds. The dinosaurs died around 70 million years ago and over time became fossils under stones. With each picture of a dinosaur was a pronunciation on how to pronounce the name of that dinosaur. The text begins by explaining how the dinosaurs came to be and ends with how they became an extinct species.

The illustrations of this book were unrealistic. The dinosaurs looked like cartoon images and consisted of dull colors. The colors of the dinosaurs were unrealistic, as well as the scenery. For example, there would be an orange dinosaur and a purple mountain. The language that Gail Gibbons uses is clear and simple to follow. This would be a good book for young children to understand.

[Amber McMinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dinosaurs talked about details of when they were on Earth and what the different kinds were called. All of the dinosaurs died around seventy million years ago and roamed the Earth's land for millions of years. Over time, they became fossils under the stone. Paleontologists dug up the fossils and carefully examined them to find out their names and features of them, while putting them back together. The scariest was called Tyrannosaurus Rex and it had teeth that were six inches long. It stood twenty feet tall and all the dinosaurs were afraid of it.

[Deanna Vaughn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dinosaurs! is a nonfiction book that gives information about types of dinosaurs. This book is easy to read for young children. It talks about how long ago dinosaurs roamed the Earth to what the dinosaurs ate. This book also categorizes the dinosaurs into plant and meat eaters. The book shows lots of pictures of the different types of dinosaurs. I think this is a great informational book for children interested or beginning to be interested in dinosaurs.

[Teri-mae Delay · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives a lot of interesting facts about dinosaurs. Like the fact that dinosaur actually means terrible lizard. The author also eliminates any fear young readers might have by saying "not all dinosaurs were terrible, some were peaceful." This book also provides descriptions and pronunciations for each dinosaur. The water color paintings were very realistic and fit the theme well. This book received a rating of five for how reader friendly and educational it is.

[Loraine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent picture book that would fascinate second or third graders as they learn about dinosaurs. The text would be easy reading for them. Each page features one dinosaur with a lifelike picture and gives a short explanation about the dinosaur. One feature that I thought was great is that the author included how to pronounce the name of each dinosaur. This is an older book, but still an excellent read for young people interested in dinosaurs.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an informational book about dinosaurs that provides a lot of interesting facts about dinosaurs and how they lived. The illustrations are very simple but visually appealing. I really enjoyed how each type of dinosaur had its pronunciations along side of it which would help children learn to sound out the word that they are reading.

[Skylar Burris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview of dinosaurs written on a basic enough level that my soon-to-be first grader could easily follow it. (Also, frankly, written on a basic enough level that I could read it aloud without stumbling all over my speech.)

[Randie D. Camp, M.S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Queen of non-fiction provides readers with a wealth of knowledge about dinosaurs. While the information is accurate and mildly interesting the illustrations were not detailed enough for young dinosaur lovers.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

The perfect introduction to dinosaurs for kids in Kindergarten and grade 1. Depending on interest, it might even work well for preschool students. Gail Gibbons presents information about dinosaurs in clear, simple language that's easy for young listeners to understand.

[Cara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good little book about dinosaurs to get kids interested. The facts were clear and concise. I would have given it another star if the pictures were better. It was like the illustrator couldn't decide between realistic and cartoon, so it was a blend of both.