BIG BOOK OF DINOSAURS

Rating:
Summary: Nice pictures, imperfect text
Review: Dinosaur lovers (or their parents) have many books to turn to these days, in a wide range of genres: technical encyclopedias, with carefully drawn skeletons and accurate scientific information; exciting memoirs of digging expeditions; historical accounts of the "Bone Wars"; and illustrated guides for a popular audience.

"The Big Book of Dinosaurs" falls into the last category; the main credit rightly goes to the artist, Bob Walters, whose fine illustrations make this a tempting gift for any young dino-phile of your acquaintance. Like many dino-artists, Walters' style and colour preferences are quite distinct, and I find his renderings rather pleasing.

Sadly, there are some errors in the text that really shouldn't be there: Giganotosaurus comes out as Gigantosaurus, theropods become therapods, to cite two examples. When the prevailing standard for dinosaur books nowadays is meticulous accuracy (no serious palaeontologist would have let those errors slip by), this is genuinely disappointing.

For stunningly illustrated dinosaurs *with* careful, accurate accompanying text, I would turn to "Dinosaurs: the Biggest, Baddest, Strangest, Fastest" by Zimmerman/Olshevsky, to name one outstanding example.

Walters' artwork certainly deserves better; perhaps the next edition?

Rating:
Summary: An ideal introduction for young readers
Review: Showcased with the superb, science based artwork of Bob Walters, The Big Book Of Dinosaurs is an ideal introduction for young readers to the fascinating world of the dinosaur. Replete with up-to-date information on the latest discoveries in the paleontological study of dinosaurs, there are profiles of more than one hundred dinosaurs from all regions of the world presented an easy-to-read, the fact-filled text. Of special interest is the section devoted to how dinosaurs evolved over millions of years into some of the animals populating the earth today. The Big Book Of Dinosaurs is an enthusiastically recommended addition to any school or community library collection for children of all ages on the subject of the dinosaur!

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful, super-cool dinos, incredible buy for the price!
Review: This is the real deal!

Walters is one of only a handful of artists qualified to create scientifically grounded anatomical reconstructions of prehistoric animals. The great thing is that his dino paintings are stunningly detailed, gloriously colored and eye-poppingly cool!

Amazingly, this big, beautuful book of incredible dino art is about half the price of anything comparable.