Lessem, D. (illustrations by J. Bindon). 2003. The dinosaur atlas. – USA, Firefly Books

Abstract

Few things interest children as much as dinosaurs. Often, children are capable of pronouncing the, admittedly sometimes tongue twisting names, without any difficulty. And in the last decennia, especially since the Jurassic Park trilogy, this interest has become even greater than ever before. I’m convinced that the enormous increase in popularity is also due to the fact that an increasing number of artists are involved in palaeontology, producing the most beautiful works of art of these extinct creatures.

The book by “Dino” Don Lessem is a book that can only further increase the enthusiasm of children in palaeontology. The layout of the book, for kids aged 8-12, is conveniently arranged and starts, obviously, with the late Triassic and continuing through the Jurassic to the Cretaceous, as indicated by the time balks at the top of the pages. Various topics are touched. Lessem chooses to arrange the information on geographical topics, like a chapter with the heading ‘the African giants’ and another one headed ‘the swamps of England’, which is, to my opinion, the best way to arrange a children’s dinosaur book. The topic is dealt with on overleaf pages, with the map of the geographical setting as background and the reconstruction of one or few of the occurring dinosaurs large on the foreground. Various texts blocks, one with details on size, food, systematics and another (with the heading ‘Dino Don says’) with short remarkable stories and black and white photographs, complete the information. Read more...