John Malam

One of my first dinosaur books that survived my childhood into adulthood. This book has served me well for 22 years. My copy is so well loved, some of the pages are falling out- but I can't bear to part with it, so it just stays in its comfy spot, tightly wedged between multiple other thick paleontology volumes, on my bookshelf. The illustrations are stunning and the informational text is bite-sized and easily absorbed. It easily grabs attention for all age ranges- younger audiences will be show more enthralled by the art and small passages of texts, and adults will find it charming and decent quick reference material. It has a wide range of species diversity too- so it isn't monotonous or generic. This is an excellent book for any kind of library. show less

"Mom," my daughter said this afternoon, "I want you to read this pirate book you got for me. I don't think it's appropriate for children my age."

Reading the book, I felt irritated that it was written in the second person, but what my daughter thought was "inappropriate" were the detailed descriptions and cartoon-like drawings of methods of torture.

I checked out this book for her because it was in the recommended reading section of her history curriculum. I used to pre-read everything, but show more now that she's almost nine and because I'm just tired, I've been handing her things with little to no previewing.

And I must say, my technique is working swimmingly. There's no need to censor her reading because she's doing a fine job censoring it for herself. I just hope she has better luck than I'm having shaking the image of the cat-o'-nine-tails with bloody fish hooks tied to the tails. show less

Pretty good book with just a few dubious word choices. Illustrations are (1) actually useful maps, (2) background-less photos of ancient artifacts meant to serve as illustrations of the text (3) photos with background of contemporary scenes, e.g., abandoned ruins, non-extinct wildlife, current inhabitants. The ancient artifact choices are really rather good. The quality of the photos and of the paper is excellent. 64 pages, 9 chapters of varying length, and a one-page timeline at the end.

Another book that has survived from my childhood to adulthood- this encyclopedia does its job but has only a few minor problems. As a kid and even today as an older adult- some of the illustrations aren't that well done but others are just epic and higher quality. Some of the pages are hit and miss with information or art. It even gives a page purely dedicated to crazy speculations over extinction events throughout history (one such example is someone apparently wondered if aliens took show more dinosaurs away as a food source). I think this serves as a decent introduction to dinosaurs, but shouldn't be used as a definitive source for modern-fact information given all the new discoveries 22 years after this book was published. It seems more geared towards younger audiences than adults- but adults can still enjoy this encyclopedia style book. show less