Pterosaurs: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age - Hardcover

Arnold, Caroline

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0618313540 ISBN 13: 9780618313549

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2004

Synopsis

Water color illustrations bring to life the pterosaur, the dominant flying dinosaur with a forty-foot wingspan, and trace its existence from evolution to extinction.

About this title

About the Author

Caroline Arnold always loved books, but as a child she never thought of writing as a career. Born in Pittsburgh, she grew up in Minneapolis and studied art at Grinnell College and the University of Iowa. "It was only after my children were born that I became acquainted with children's books and it occurred to me that I could use my training to become a children's book illustrator. I soon realized that I needed a text to go with the pictures, and the more I wrote, the more I realized that I liked writing as much as or more than drawing. I've always been fascinated by the natural world and love to go to the parks and museums. Perhaps that is why so many of my books are about scientific topics." Arnold is now the award-winning author of more than 100 books for children. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, a neuroscientist, and teaches writing at UCLA Extension. For more information visit www.carolinearnoldbooks.com.

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From Booklist

Gr. 2-4. After tackling megalodon, feathered dinos, and woolly mammoths in three previous books, Arnold and Caple add another extinct creature to their repertoire. This solid overview of "the only reptiles ever capable of powered flight" covers pterosaurs' ancestry, their peculiar physiology, theories about their behavior, and major fossil discoveries, frequently making abstract facts concrete through vivid comparisons: "If your arms were built like the wings of a pterosaur, your little finger would be more than 3 feet (1 meter) long!" Descriptions of about 20 of the more than 100 different pterosaur species known today round out the text. Caple's neatly labeled watercolors emphasize clarity over drama, but her subjects' exotic physical oddities (hairy, batlike bodies; toucan-bright beaks; bulbous, gaudily colored crests) will draw kids into the diorama-like tableaus. A concluding list of museums that house pterosaur fossils will keep field-trip planners and families of dino-mad youngsters busy for years to come; source notes and titles for further reading would have made a solid package even better. Jennifer Mattson
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Edition details

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0618313540
• ISBN 13: 9780618313549
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Caple Laurie