NR ABC Dinosaurs

by Jan Pieńkowski

Pop-up ABC

Genres: Picture Books, Nonfiction

10 pages, Hardcover

First published September 16, 1993

About the author

Jan Michel Pieńkowski is a Polish-born British illustrator and author of children's books. He is probably best known for his Meg and Mog books with writer Helen Nicoll and for his pop-up books, including Haunted House (winner of the 1980 Kate Greenaway Medal), Robot, Dinner Time, Good Night and seventeen others.

Pieńkowski illustrated his first book at the age of eight, as a present for his father. During World War II, Pieńkowski's family moved about Europe, finally settling in Herefordshire, England in 1946. He attended the Cardinal Vaughan School in London, and later read English and Classics at King's College, Cambridge.

After leaving university Pieńkowski founded the Gallery Five greeting cards company. He began illustrating children's books in his spare time, but soon found the work taking over all his time. He began working with children's author Joan Aiken in 1968; he later won the first of two Kate Greenaway Medals in 1972 for his illustrations for Aiken's The Kingdom Under the Sea.

Pieńkowski has had a life-long interest in stage design. He was commissioned to provide designs for Theatre de Complicite, Beauty and the Beast for the Royal Ballet, and Sleeping Beauty at Disneyland Paris.

In 2005 Pienkowski contracted a civil partnership with David Walser, with whom he has been in a relationship for over forty years.

Pienkowski suffers from bipolar disorder.

Reviews

[Nick Swarbrick]

There are lots of ABC Dinosaur books - for many the idea, I guess, is to encourage sound/ letter correspondence in young children.
Pieńkowski’s book takes a different tack: this is riot of colour and language through Allosaurus and Rhamphorhyncus and ending with Zephyrosaurus, some printed on the page, some, like Liopleurodon brought into chomping, menacing like by inventive paper engineering. Each creature is pattered with its initial letter, but this is a subtle message, and the overall impression is a carnival of big and little creatures bursting from the page.
Why review a book from 1993? Well, it came up in the class I was teaching, and our home copy is still intact, and I had forgotten how much we all loved it. A far cry from Pieńkowski’s calm and often static silhouettes, this is a book to celebrate noisily.

[Leo]

14 month old Leo and Mom flipped through it but did not read all the dinosaur names. Our copy (from the library) was well-loved, so we didn't get the full effect of some of the features, but it seemed cool overall.

[Therese Thompson]

Excellent paper engineering on each page, however, there is no story. It’s just an alphabetical listing of dinosaur names, which was disappointing.

[jacky]

Found this book at my parents house and have used it a couple times to entertain Natalie. I really love the pop-ups and illustrations, but it really is just an alphabet book. This is an awesome book for a young dinosaur enthusiast, but I would think learning to read the names would be difficult.

[Jude Gravois]

Jude thinks it's scary when the T-rex teeth crunch down upon a stegosaurus (it actually makes the sound). Perhaps not for the faint of heart.