My Big Dinosaur Book [Board book]

The "My Big Dinosaur Book" is a great addition to the Big Ideas for Little People series of books (we also have the Trains and Trucks books). Both of my sons love these books -- my 5 year old STUDIES every name, picture, and category and has been reading the Dinosaur book every day since he received it. My 3 year old loves to look at the pictures over and over.

The photos have realistic and colorful models of each dinosaur, most of the full body (a few have just the face). I do agree that pronunciations would be really really nice to have. The heavier board-book style makes it very durable, especially for little ones who are prone to tearing out pages.

This is a must-have addition to the library of any young dinosaur fan!

Excluding the covers, this sturdy 10.5"x10.5" board book has about 40 photos of realistic models of extinct reptiles set against bright solid color backgrounds. There is minimal text (dinosaur names, headings such as "Peaceful plant eaters" and "Weird and wonderful," and questions like "how many horns does Chasmosaurus have?"). It's attention-grabbing.

So far so good, especially for toddlers who have an interest in dinosaurs and their ilk. Unfortunately:
- Despite the book's title, it has some non-dinosaurs. Quetzalcoatlus was a pterosaur (flying reptile) and Macroplata was a plesiosaur (marine reptile).
- Some of the photos are of the same model, yielding two Baryonyx, Chasmosaurus, Iguanodon, Leptoceratops, Nodosaurus, Ouranosaurus, Parasaurolophus, Riojasaurus, Ultrasaurus, Wannanosaurus, Zephyrosaurus, and others. Instead of duplicate genera, it would have been nicer to see more genera like Albertosaurus, Ankylosaurus, Apatosaurus (formerly known as Brontosaurus), Brachiosaurus, Dilophosaurus, Giganotosaurus, Oviraptor, and Spinosaurus.
- There is no pronunciation guide.
- Almost half the photos show only the dinosaur's head. We never get to see the entire Tyrannosaurus rex, for example.
- Three photos sadly leave out interesting items at the ends of dinosaurs' tails. The photo of Euoplocephalus omits the tail club. Stegosaurus and Kentrosaurus aren't the same when you can't see their tail spikes ("thagomizers"). Except for the "Funny faces" spread, it would have been better for the book to have full-body photos.
- The relative sizes of the animals are difficult to appreciate. Velociraptor looks as tall as Allosaurus, but the former was the size of a beaver and the latter the size of a rhinoceros.
- The name "Stenonychosaurus" is used twice; however, the name of this dinosaur since the late 1980s has been "Troodon."
- "Yingshanosaurus" has never been officially described in the scientific literature and the fossil's "whereabouts are unknown," but it was reported to have spines extending from its shoulders which are absent here.
- The full-body and head photos of Xenotarsosaurus show "devilish" horns just above the eyes. It's too bad that no one has ever located the head of this creature.
- If you look up the article "The dinosaur Hadrosaurus foulkii, from the Campanian of the East Coast of North America, with a reevaluation of the genus," you'll see how little of the skeleton was found. So the model of Hadrosaurus (used for two of the book's photos) may be quite inaccurate (especially the head).

If you can live with the aforementioned issues, buy this book from Amazon.com! Otherwise, I suggest The Usborne Big Book of Big Dinosaurs as a first nonfiction book of dinosaurs for young children.

My son's first dinosaur book was Touch and Feel: Dinosaur (Touch and Feel); soon he wanted another one with more dinosaurs. My Big Dinosaur Book (My Big Board Books) included dinosaurs from both the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Each page has a question, such as "Which dinosaur has striped legs?" or "Can you point to the creatures that fly?", which helps children learn the simlarities and differences of the dinosaurs. The "photographs" will take your breath away.

This book includes the traditional favorites - Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus, and Triceratops, as well as some new favorites: Allosaurus, Macroplata, and Diplodocus.

This book does not include pronounciation guides, but the names are manageable.

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