Make-a-saurus: My Life with Raptors and Other Dinosaurs

Here's an exciting new approach to the realm of dinosaurs. World-class dinosaur sculptor Brian Cooley takes kids on a journey into the recent past, when dinosaurs were thought to be cold-blooded, lumbering, solitary creatures. As Brian explains, paleontologists went on to discover new fossils that proved dinosaurs were lean, swift and gregarious. This shift in viewpoint was dramatic, but today there is an even more radical development: the overwhelming evidence indicates that some dinosaurs were feathered, the ancestors of avian life as we know it today.

In Make-a-saurus, Brian reveals just how paleontologists were able to establish that some dinosaurs had feathers. Then he shows how he builds his own feathered model. First, he gathers all the information he can about how the dinosaur looked, beginning with the skeleton. The next step for Brian is creating a rough sketch of the creature, before moving on to shaping the model and applying the fine details. Photographs taken during each step of the process enable children to see a life-like dinosaur model grow before their eyes -- one that recently appeared in National Geographic.

In the last section of the book, Brian adapts his professional model-building for children, telling them how to construct their own dinosaur -- feathered or rough-skinned -- with clear, easy-to-follow instructions, using inexpensive, easy to find materials like wire, tape, papier maché and even dryer lint! Brian brings a light, bright touch to the instructions, so children can truly enjoy creating a dinosaur of their own -- one that can be handled and played with, not just shelved.

"If you want a dinosaur to look as if it could walk right off the pedestal and bite you, you would hire Brian Cooley." (Chris Sloan, Art Director, National Geographic)

Brian Cooley, one of the world's top dinosaur sculptors, developed a love of dinosaurs as a kid. He has been producing dinosaur models professionally for 17 years, and to date his work has appeared on the covers of two issues of National Geographic. He has produced more that 30 models, many of which have toured the United States and Canada or are part of permanent displays at such institutions as the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology in Drumheller, Alberta.