In Search Of Dinosaurs: Find the Fossils: Identify the Dinosaurs - Hardcover

In Search of Dinosaurs
By Dougal Dixon. Illus. by Daniele Fabbri
2019. 44p. Quarto/words & pictures, $17.95 (9781786035493). K-Gr. 3. 567.9
Here's another picture book about dinosaurs, but with a fresh twist. Pages alternate between illustrations of fossil digs, re-creations of corresponding prehistoric scenes, and follow-up "Dinosaur Directories" filled with facts about each featured creature. After some preliminary basics--an accessible time line and an overview of a paleontologist's tool kit--we're off. The first double-page watercolor spread shows young fossil hunters carefully excavating specimens from a Triassic period cliffside dig site. This spread opens into a four-page foldout showing walking, flying, crawling, and swimming Triassic dinosaurs busily going about their daily activities. The following pages provide brief features about each critter, focusing on how clues found at the site provide insights into environments, climate, how these animals got around, and what (or who) they ate. These layouts are repeated for the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, incorporating clues found at the excavation sites and musings about how the animals may have died and turned into fossils. Both young readers and exasperated adults who have exhausted their dinosaur collections will welcome this crowd-pleasing, novel approach.
-- Kathleen McBroom