Dinosaur Habitat - Softcover

Griffith, Helen V.

3.76

37 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0606173277 ISBN 13: 9780606173278

Publisher: Demco Media, 1999

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After twelve-year-old Nathan's pesky younger brother Ryan claims to have found a dinosaur fossil, they are suddenly transported into a misty world where Ryan's toy dinosaurs are alive

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About the Author:

Helen V. Griffith lives in Wilmington, Delaware. In Her Own Words...

"What I like about writing books is that I can sit and think about things that most adults never think about, and it's okay because I'm a children's book writer."

"I can imagine what my dog is dreaming about or what she and my cat discuss when I'm not around. I can design a time machine or make up a tall tale, and nobody says, "Grow up, Helen"--because I'm a children's book writer.

"I was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and I work in the family business. We're distributors of roofing and siding materials, and I've never yet gotten a story inspiration from that. Most of my ideas seem to come from dogs I have known.

"My grandfather was part of our family and used to read to me a lot-the Sunday funny papers, turn-of-the-century primers, and The Arabian Nights. When I could read for myself, I read fairy tales, dog and horse stories, and comic books by the dozen.

"I started writing poems and the beginnings of novels by the age of seven or eight, but I was forty before I thought about writing for publication.

"For fun, I like reading (especially Anthony Trollope) and birdwatching, and I've just started learning to play old-time fiddle!"

From Kirkus Reviews:

Dinosaurs break out of their terrarium confines, taking two brothers for a wild ride, in this junior Jurassic Park from Griffith (Dream Meadow, 1994, etc.). Every kid's dinosaur daydream becomes reality when 12-year-old Nathan tosses younger brother Ryan's fossilized egg across the room, where it lands in the center of Ryan's terrarium. As mist envelops the bedroom, desks and chairs recede and carpets become squishy; the boys find themselves lost in a larger-than-life swampy, volcanic habitat, whose rollicking, rampaging residents are giant dinosaurs and insects. Nathan and Ryan easily accept their situation in the face of immediate danger from an ornery coelophysis, a reptilian home-wrecker who steals a mother hadrosaur's nest eggs; each brief, subsequent episode introduces a new dinosaur, anticipated by Ryan, who knows the attributes of the plastic creatures from his terrarium. Despite a repetitive plot, Griffith competently varies the action and description of the boys' alternating thrill and terror in the face of such creatures as a ``gigantic, glittering carnivore,'' or the threat of a lava-spewing volcano. Some irksome banter between the brothersNathan constantly muddling dinosaur names with Ryan just as regularly correcting himdoesn't detract from the screeches, wails, and shrieks that will certainly entice newly independent readers into the pages. (b&w illustrations, not seen) (Fiction. 8-11) -- Copyright �1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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