Scaly Spotted Feathered Frilled Companion Booktalks

To get you start­ed on the Book­storm™ books …

Age of Rep­tiles and Age of Rep­tiles: the Hunt, Richard Del­ga­do, Dark Horse Books, 2011. Ages 12 and up.

• Word­less sto­ry­telling through beau­ti­ful (some­times gory) art
• What hap­pens when you steal the T‑rex eggs? What hap­pens when an Allosaurus takes revenge on the Cer­atosaurs that killed his mother?
• The author-artist has worked on movies such as Men in Black, The Incred­i­bles, WALL‑E

Cap­tain Rap­tor series, writ­ten by Kevin O’Mal­ley, illus­trat­ed by Patrick O’Brien, Walk­er Books, 2005. Ages 5 – 8.

• Dinosaurs are the char­ac­ters on the plan­et Jurassica
• Rock­et ships and action
• Good guys, bad guys, scary stuff, and fun inventions

The Dinosaurs of Water­house Hawkins, writ­ten by Bar­bara Ker­ley, illus­trat­ed by Bri­an Selznick, Scholas­tic Press, 2001.

• Biog­ra­phy of  19^th cen­tu­ry pale­oartist Water­house Hawkins who pop­u­lar­ized dinosaurs and once threw a din­ner par­ty inside one of his dinosaur sculptures
• Just why are pieces of his dinosaur sculp­tures buried in New York’s Cen­tral Park?
• Calde­cott Hon­or book

 Dinosaurs: the Grand Tour, writ­ten by Keiron Pim and Jack Horner, The Exper­i­ment, 2014. Appro­pri­ate for chil­dren and adults.

• Report mate­r­i­al on more than 300 dinosaurs and the sci­en­tists who have dis­cov­ered and stud­ied them
• Help­ful orga­ni­za­tion (col­or-cod­ed by Geo­log­ic peri­od) with gray scale illustrations
• Includes Chi­nese and Native Amer­i­can mythol­o­gy linked to dinosaurs

How the Dinosaur Got to the Muse­um, Jessie Hart­land, Blue Apple Books, 2013. Ages 6 to 9

• Pic­ture book about the team­work need­ed to bring a dinosaur skele­ton to a place where many peo­ple can see it and learn from it (the Smith­son­ian Museum)
• Sol­id infor­ma­tion deliv­ered in bright art and live­ly language
• A Book­list “Top Ten Sci-Tech Books for Youth” (2010)

How to Draw Incred­i­ble Dinosaurs, writ­ten by Kris­ten McCur­ry, illus­trat­ed by Juan Calle, Smith­son­ian Draw­ing Books/Capstone Press, 2012. Ages 5 and up.

• Step-by-step instruc­tions for ages 5 and up
• Each draw­ing les­son comes with a brief “bio” of the dinosaur model
• One in a set of 4 draw­ing books (also: Incred­i­ble Ocean Ani­mals, Amaz­ing Ani­mals, Amaz­ing Space­craft)

Pale­on­tol­ogy: the Study of Pre­his­toric Life, writ­ten by Susan H. Gray, Scholas­tic, 2012. ages 4 and up

• A begin­ning intro­duc­tion to the sci­ence of paleontology
• Quick facts in col­or­ful large font, illus­trat­ed with many photographs
• Includes his­to­ry of pale­on­tol­ogy, how sci­en­tists date fos­sils, the tools they use

Plant Hunters: True sto­ries of their dar­ing adven­tures to the far cor­ners of the Earth, Ani­ta Sil­vey, Far­rar, Straus & Giroux, 2012. Ages 8 and up.

• Sci­en­tists have had the cra­zi­est adventures
• Beau­ti­ful­ly illus­trat­ed (many archival pho­tographs) and use­ful­ly orga­nized — great report material
• Includes a chap­ter on con­tem­po­rary scientists

Pre­his­toric Life by DK Pub­lish­ing, 2010. Ages 8 and up

• Dinosaurs and more: the plants, inver­te­brates, amphib­ians, birds, rep­tiles, and mam­mals from the ori­gins of life in the sea to the evo­lu­tion of man
• DK’s sig­na­ture explod­ed dia­grams, cut­aways, and high-inter­est visuals
• Cof­fee table-beau­ti­ful and with tons of report material

Stone Girl, Bone Girl: the Sto­ry of Mary Anning, writ­ten by Lau­rence Anholt, illus­trat­ed by Sheila Mox­ley, Frances Lin­coln, 2006. Ages 6 – 9

• Mary Anning: Struck by light­en­ing as a baby, famous at age 12, a girl work­ing in a man’s world
• Vivid­ly illus­trat­ed pic­ture book sto­ry about the most famous fos­sil hunter of all (and the inspi­ra­tion for the wicked tongue twister “She Sells Sea Shells”)
• Puts an engag­ing, human face on the 19^th cen­tu­ry icon by mix­ing biog­ra­phy with an ele­ment of tall tale

Ubiq­ui­tous: Cel­e­brat­ing Nature’s Sur­vivors, writ­ten by Joyce Sid­man, illus­trat­ed by Beck­ie Prange, HMH Books for Young Read­ers, 2010. Ages 7 – 12.

• Mam­mals and birds and rep­tiles that have sur­vived extinc­tion, excel­lent for con­trast in a dis­cus­sion about dinosaurs
• Each spread includes a poem, facts, and a hand-col­ored linocut
• From the cre­ators of the Calde­cott Hon­or Book Song of the Water Boat­man and Oth­er Pond Poems