Dinosaurs Big and Small: Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 1

PreS.-Gr. 1. This attractive book from the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series discusses the sizes of various dinosaurs. Since estimates of height and weight are not sufficient to help children understand the actual sizes of various species, both the text and the illustrations compare the prehistoric animals to more recognisable measures: a standard-size kid (1.2m tall, 34kg), the length of a school bus (9.1m), the weight of an elephant (5 tonnes). Many books discuss the largest meat-eating dinosaur, Giganotosaurus, but this one one explains that it weighed less than 2 elephant units and had a mouth full of sharp teeth the size of bananas. Just as vivid as that verbal image is Washburn's artwork, apparently done in pastels, which creates scenes that are sometimes naturalistic, sometimes fantastic. The colourful, softly shaded illustrations might show sauropods strolling past a line of parked school buses or a single Brachiosaurus stretching his neck to the height of a pyramid of neatly balanced elephants. Well focused and very appealing. Carolyn Phelan
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