ALA Booklist (Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2002)

This attractive book from the Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science series discusses the sizes of various dinosaurs. Since estimates of height and weight are not sufficient to help children understand the actual sizes of various species, both the text and the illustrations compare the prehistoric animals to more recognizable measures: a standard-size kid (4 feet tall, 75 pounds), the length of a school bus (30 feet), the weight of an elephant (5 tons). Many books discuss the largest meat-eating dinosaur, Giganotosaurus , but this one one explains that it weighed less than 2 elephant units and had a mouth full of sharp teeth the size of bananas. Just as vivid as that verbal image is Washburn's artwork, apparently done in pastels, which creates scenes that are sometimes naturalistic, sometimes fantastic. The colorful, softly shaded illustrations might show sauropods strolling past a line of parked school buses or a single Brachiosaurus stretching his neck to the height of a pyramid of neatly balanced elephants. Well focused and very appealing.

Horn Book (Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2003)

The complete text of the Declaration of Independence is presented, phrase by phrase, on double-page spreads, with one page containing the text and the other an illustration that helps elucidate the words. Examining the document in smaller fragments and including art reminiscent of editorial cartoons makes the Declaration more accessible to young readers. A chronology of events is included. Bib., glos., ind.

Kirkus Reviews

An introduction to dinosaurs for younger readers, this Stage 1 "Lets-Read-And-Find-Out Science" title describes big and little dinosaurs from Diplodocus, "one of the biggest," to Mussaurus, only as large as a baby-bird when hatched. More recent giants, like Seismosaurus, Argentinosaurus, and Brachiosaurus are also introduced in the same low-keyed fashion. The author explains the latter may have weighed as much as 16 elephants, and the illustrator obligingly shows a tower of 16 elephants. The author provides size comparisons throughout; for example, Giganotosaurus had teeth "the size of a banana," and Seismosaurus at 130 feet long was, "longer than 4 school buses." Soft chalk drawings in buff, blue, and purple, show the kinder gentler side of dinosaurs—even the meat-eaters look somewhat cuddly. The illustrator concludes with a scale drawing of the dinosaurs presented, including an elephant and a human for scale. While there is little new here, this is a non-threatening additional purchase for the dinosaur set. (Nonfiction. 5-7)

School Library Journal (Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2002)

Gr 2-4 Discussing the wide variety of sizes in the dinosaur lexicon, Zoehfeld's simple text presents kids, school buses, and elephants as yardsticks for the measurement of a number of weighty sauropods and lesser lights, from the massive Argentinosaurus to the cat-sized Compsognathus . Washburn's eye-catching illustrations, in glowing rusts and purples, blues and greens, march step-by-step with the text. Included is a double-page lineup of all the mentioned saurians, with a brief note on each one that gives its scientific name, pronunciation, length, and weight. Brightly colored, informative, and on a cherished topic, the book is certain to gather no shelf-sitter dust. Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY