Dinosaur bones - Softcover

Barner, Bob

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0439380545 ISBN 13: 9780439380546

Publisher: Scholastic, 2002

Synopsis

The creator of Dem Bones digs up another set of rattling fine specimens for this splashy expedition into the world of fossils. A simple poem ("Dinosaurs are gone for good. / Maybe dinosaurs once lived in your neighborhood!") serves as an umbrella framework for a lesson on prehistoric favorites. Each turn of the page pairs a single stanza in hand-lettered type ("Dinosaurs had teeth to bite and jaws to chew") with an accompanying illustration, while a bite-size piece of additional information in smaller type helps extend the book's appeal to older readers ("The shape of the jaws and teeth help scientists find out if a dinosaur was a meat or plant eater"). The snappy, vigorous rhymes ("They had bones with disks and bones with points, / bones for running with sockets and joints") propel the production forward, while the artwork, a jazzy blend of pen-and-ink, watercolor, cut and torn paper and computer graphics, creates a tantalizing blend of streamlined shapes and saturated colors. Barner shows each spotlighted dinosaur in both skeletal and living form, and two concluding spreads offer more information in a height chart and "dinometer" chart, fleshing out such questions as "What did it eat?" and "What does its footprint look like?" A splendid introduction to a perennially popular subject.

About this title

About the Author:

Bob Barner was born in Arkansas, grew up in the midwest and now lives in Northern California. He graduated from The Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He has worked as an art therapist and an art director at several advertising agencies and design studios and has also assisted Al Capp with the writing and drawing for the popular comic strip "Li'l Abner." Barner works with pen and ink, watercolor, cut and torn paper as well as three dimensional materials.

From Booklist:

Ages 3-7. Barner's engaging book features an irresistibly appealing jacket, vibrant illustrations, and parallel texts for children of different ages. For the youngest listeners, one line of a rhymed couplet appears on each double-page spread, while below it are two or three sentences of dinosaur facts in smaller type, to be read to kids with a slightly longer attention span. The text is interesting, though not memorable. The real draw here is the artwork: computer-enhanced collages of cut-and-torn papers heightened with watercolors and pen and ink. Electric color combinations animate Barner's imaginative, large-scale pictures of dinosaurs and dinosaur bones. Colorful charts on the final spreads show relative sizes of different species of dinosaurs and identify basic information about them, such as length, weight, diet, and shape of footprint. Add this to the surprisingly short list of nonfiction dinosaur books that are accessible to young children. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Scholastic
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0439380545
• ISBN 13: 9780439380546
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 32