Dinosaurs

Usborne Discovery

by Rachel Firth

Describes and illustrates different kinds of dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles; discusses their feeding, defenses, intelligence, movement, senses, mating, and theories about their disappearance; and includes Web site addresses to enhance the reader's research.Describes and illustrates different kinds of dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles; discusses their feeding, defenses, intelligence, movement, senses, mating, and disappearance; and includes Web site addresses.

Genres: Childrens, Dinosaurs, Science, Animals, Education

63 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Rachel spent 11 years studying and teaching philosophy at the universities of London and Oxford before joining Usborne. Since then she has written books on subjects ranging from knights, to food, to philosophy, as well as retelling folk stories, and writing children's versions of numerous novels.

Reviews

[Morgan Haught]

Summary:
This is a nonfiction book called "Dinosaurs" written by Rachel Firth. In this book, all different kinds of dinosaurs are seen and lots of questions are answered about how dinosaurs ate, lived, and survived all those years ago. They even talk about dinosaurs that can be seen today, weather in fossils or in characteristics of the animals still on Earth. At the end of the book, there is a glossary that can be found with important words that can be found throughout the book.
Analysis:
This book had a lot of important facts and it was filled with fun dinosaurs. Although this book was easier to read, some of the words were more complicated and there were many more pages than in a regular children's book. I loved the pictures that went along with the facts, it made the material more memorable and added more reality to the way that the dinosaurs lived all that time ago.
How I can use this book:
I can use this book in my classroom on a topic about dinosaurs. This book has a lot of important facts, and I believe that it would be helpful for beginners who want to learn more about them. The students in my class could do a writing activity based on one of the facts in the book, or they could do some sort of drawing activity with the book as well.

[Alena Medae]

Dinosaurs is a non-fiction book with everything to do about dinosaurs, from the way they are structured, eat, and how they became extinct. Each page has several paragraphs of text along with numerous captions. There are lots of pictures to look at. This book talks about the role of a paleontologist and the most recent discoveries. Most of what we know about dinosaurs is due to the information collected within the past forty years. This book describes characteristics of specific animals like the stegosaurs and the dromaeosaurs.

I like this book a lot and I enjoyed learning facts about these extinct creatures. However, I do not like pages 24-25 that state some dinosaurs are "slow and stupid". I do not think this is appropriate language. I like the combination of drawn illustrations and photographs. "Terrors of the seas" were my two favorite pages because they explained water dinosaurs.

I would not read students the part of the book that mentions dinosaurs being stupid but I do like some of the other facts. I would show students the pictures in this book especially. There is a website connected to the book and I think I would let students browse it.

[Megan Ballard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learn about the fascinating species of dinosaurs with this read! You can learn about fossils, breeds of dinosaurs, their diets, deadly dinosaurs, and cute baby dinosaurs! Rachel Firth will have you obsessed with dinosaurs after reading interesting facts along with vivid pictures to help you understand the life of dinosaurs! I personally enjoyed this book because I find dinosaurs very fascinating. They are a very mysterious species and I enjoyed learning more about them as I read this book. I would use this book in my class to help teach my kids about dinosaurs. I think they would enjoy the pictures contained in this book and it would help them learn many fun facts about dinosaurs!

[Marissa Gidcomb · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book by Rachel Firth discusses many facts about dinosaurs, from what dinosaurs are to what they ate to how they died. It also discusses many different types of dinosaurs and how scientists research them.
This book is very interesting. It has many realistic illustrations. I would use this book in a unit about dinosaurs.