Title: National Geographic Kids: Dinosaurs
Author: Kathy Weidner Zoehfeld
Year published: 2011
Publisher: The National Geographic Society
Number of pages: 32
Recommended age: 4+
Son Rating: ★★★★★
Grown-up Rating: ★★★★★
Reviewed by: Renee and Dominic (Mother and Son)
Summary (from Amazon): There’s nothing more fascinating than dinosaurs. In this Level 1 reader, youngsters learn all about the terrifying giants that once roamed the Earth—maybe even as close as their own backyard! They’ll be wowed by new information and eye-popping illustrations from National Geographic, a trusted source of children’s nonfiction content.
SON SAYS
What it’s about: This book teaches all about dinosaurs: what they look like, what they eat, how big they are and other things like that.
What I liked and disliked about: I’ve read lots of dinosaur books before but this one taught me new things like dinosaurs didn’t have fur and I learned about what they ate. They also talked about dinosaurs I had never heard of before like the Buitreraptor. I had also never seen the Microraptor before. I thought it was cool that they showed how big a dinosaur was compared to a person. When I saw the picture of the Argentinosaurus, I thought it was an elephant with no face. I also didn’t know that a T-Rex’s tooth makes a good knife.
My favorite dinosaur is the Ankylosaurus because it’s cool how it has spikes and a hammer tail thingy-ma-jigger. My second favorite dinosaur is the Triceratops because it’s cool how it has giant horns and a shield on its head and it’s funny that it has a mouth like a beak. My third favorite is the Stegosaurus because it’s cool how it looks like it has leaves on its back. My fourth favorite dinosaur is the T-Rex because it’s the biggest meat eater. My fifth favorite is the Edmontosaurus because they can make a stampede when there’s a bunch together running.
There is nothing I didn’t like about the book.
My bottom line: I loved, loved, loved this book. I would recommend it to little boys my age or 6 years old.
MOM SAYS
What it’s about: This book, published by National Geographic Kids, provides the latest scientific facts on dinosaurs including their skin, the smallest and biggest dinosaurs, how dinosaurs walked, what dinosaurs ate, and how to identify present-day dinosaurs.
What I liked and disliked about: For followers of our reviews, you’ll note that this book was featured as one of the selections in the Children’s Non-Fiction week of our Summer Reading Weekly Book Giveaways. Well, Lo and Behold! What should we spot on our latest visit to the library but National Geographic Kids: Dinosaurs! 
Well, my son and I got pretty excited when we saw this book and did not fail to deliver! As mentioned by my son above, we have read several dinosaur books, but I would rate this one at the very top. It provides the right combination of real photographs of Paleontologists digging up fossils of dinosaur bones and coloured illustrations of 15 different dinosaurs representing the well known (e.g., T-Rex, Triceratops) and some we had never run across before (e.g., Microraptor, Anchiornis).
But I think that what really sets this book apart from other dinosaur books that we’ve read is that there seems to be just the right amount of information. I find that most dinosaur books have so much detail about each dinosaur that it is quite easy for kids to quickly lose interest. In this book, they provide very basic facts about some of the more popular dinosaurs:
Tyrannosaurus rex (ty-RAN-oh-SORE-us REX) was one of the biggest meat-eaters that ever walked the Earth.
Triceratops (tri-SER-a-tops) had a huge head with three large horns and a wide neck frill.
Anklylosaurus (AN-kye-loh-SORE-us) was an armored dinosaur. It had a solid bone club at the end of its tail.
Oh, and can I just say that I appreciate the help with the pronunciation of some of these beasts? Well, that just might be the French in me with all the funny accents in the wrong place coming out!
Interestingly, when my son was discussing his favorite dinosaurs above and the reasons why they were his favorite, these are exactly the features that he remembered. Further, with regards to the information provided, there are unique scientific facts about dinosaurs presented in this book and they are presented in very simplified, easy-to-remember ways.
Dinosaur Skin: Sometimes dinosaur skin left prints in mud. The mud hardened and saved the prints. These fossils tell us that some dinosaurs were scaly, like lizards. And some dinosaurs had feathers, like birds. [PHOTOS AND ILLUSTRATIONS PROVIDED].
Worthy of a quick mention is that there is a glossary of some of the terms used in the book at the very back: extinct, fossil, museum, and Paleontologist. Nice touch!
My bottom line: My son and I really, really, really enjoyed this book. For his age group, I would say that this is THE dinosaur book. I would recommend it to young dinosaur lovers aged 4+.
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