Dinosaur Empire! (Earth Before Us #1): Journey through the Mesozoic Era

For dinosaur enthusiasts only. Dinosaur Empire! is jam-packed with information--too much information. The illustrations are nice, however, and I especially liked how Abby Howard drew many of the dinosaurs with feathers, making clear their connection to birds. The lay reader--even one fascinated by dinosaurs, like I am--will find this too information-dense to really enjoy; however, I heartily recommend Dinosaur Empire! to obsessed dinosaur-lovers.

Audience: older children and adults with good focus; young children will be overwhelmed by everything here.

Entertaining and educational. This graphic novel takes you traveling through time to visit of the three different periods of the Mesozoic era (Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous). It does a great job of explaining the difference between the creatures considered dinosaurs and those creatures that aren't dinosaurs. I also appreciate that it had the phonetic spelling of each animal to help you sound it out and pronounce the name correctly. Excellent learning tool!

Much more education focused than I’d expected, this is almost a textbook. Very much in the tradition of the magic school bus series.

Ronnie and Ms. Lernin, his retired paleontologist neighbor travel back in time to experience the Mesozoic Era themselves. Ronnie and Ms. Lernin come face to face with many dinosaurs along the way. Ronnie learns many dinosaur facts from Ms. Lernin while they are on their journey.

This book includes many many dinosaur facts. I would use this as an extra credit book maybe, because we do not teach much about dinosaurs in the classroom, but it is a neat book to share with your older students nonetheless.

Not quite as fun as Ocean Renegades, but still excellent

A LOT of dinosaur facts in here.

"What are you doing sitting in that recycling bin, Miss Lernin?"
"That's not important. What is important is your education!"