Dinosaurs Big and Small

Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 1

by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, Lucia Washburn (Illustrator)

Read and find out about dinosaurs big and small in this colorfully illustrated nonfiction picture book. Some dinosaurs were big. How big? As long as four school buses in a row, as heavy as sixteen elephants. Some dinosaurs were small. How small? Read and find out in this clear and appealing science book for early elementary age kids, both at home and in the classroom. This is a Level 1 Let's-Read-and-Find-Out, which means the book explores introductory concepts perfect for children in the primary grades. The 100+ titles in this leading nonfiction series Top 10 reasons to love Books in this series support the Common Core Learning Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) standards. Let's-Read-and-Find-Out is the winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Films Prize for Outstanding Science Series.

Genres: Picture Books, Dinosaurs, Science, Nonfiction, Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2002

About the author

Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld is the award-winning author of more than sixty books for children, including DINOSAUR TRACKS, "a great choice for even the most discriminating dinophiles" (School Library Journal); DID DINOSAURS HAVE FEATHERS?, a Children's Book of the Month Club selection, described as "fascinating" by Kirkus Reviews; and DINOSAURS BIG AND SMALL, a 2003 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Book Award winner.

When she's not reading, researching, writing, or editing, Kathleen loves to spend her free time exploring, doing fieldwork, and preparing fossils for her local natural history museums.

Reviews

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay introduction for the younger picture book crowd. Helps put the size of dinosaurs into perspective. My kids both enjoyed it. Illustrations are nice, nothing unnecessarily violent or scary looking like some dinosaur books. Copyright 2002 so would need to pair with more updated books.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great information in an age-appropriate and concise format for young children to be able to start to understand the size, scale and features of the large creatures that used to call Earth home. This should not be the only book you read about dinosaurs as there isn't much information on origins or habitats but it was a really great book to supplement a greater study of dinosaurs.

[Eliot Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nicely illustrated #dinosaurbook that focuses on comparing and explaining dinosaur sizes.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Claims the dinosaurs are millions of years old without presenting the young earth perspective.

[The Book Box]

I got this from the school library.

[Heather Brisendine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review from my 4 year old: I liked learning about the dinosaurs. I was amazed by how big the meat-eaters' teeth were. I liked all the pictures in the book because they were very dinosaury.

[Yanel Plata · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about dinosaurs that range from the smallest to the biggest, it describes each dinosaur. It starts off with describing how big the first dinosaur was and the name of the dinosaur. This book describes what type of food each dinosaur ate, for example a sauropod was a plant eater. There are various illustrations in this book that help the child receive a sense of what the dinosaur might have looked like in each page it is described. It helps the reader create imagination with all the information he/she is being given.

Now days most children learn about dinosaurs through movies where the dinosaurs are seen as man eating monsters. In this informational book it gives the child a more broad imagination on how dinosaurs were way back then. This book describes what type of food each dinosaur ate which wasn’t always animals but most of the time plants and also how big the dinosaurs were. In this book the author created great comparison for the reader to be able to understand for example the author says a kid weighs about 75 pounds. Then the author describes how a diplodocus, a type of dinosaur, weighed about 24,000 pounds, which is about 320 kids together. Children have an enormous amount of curiosity and they need to be satisfied with curiosity so us as adults must fulfill their curiosity by answering their questions. As much as we want to we unfortunately do not obtain all the answers for their many questions but it is our duty to point them in the right direction in receiving their answers. This book helps a child collect all these facts about dinosaurs that will help the child determine what they saw in movies was fake or real and it gives them the opportunity to see the true story that isn’t all Hollywood.

[Alex Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld is a nonfiction book made for very young readers. It is classified as Level 1 by the publisher. It includes facts about different types of dinosaurs ranging from very small sized to gigantic. The book includes looks at many different types of dinosaurs, time periods they lived in, and what parts of the world they could have been found.

I think this was a good book for its intended audience - young children who want to learn about dinosaurs. The illustrations are by Lucia Washburn. Although it might have been nice to see more real-looking pictures, Washburn's illustrations are nice. They give children the information they need in order to really learn. I like how the double page spreads are utilized with a lot of useful information. I also like the overall layout of the book. I think it gives children a real idea of what nonfiction books are like.

[Inna Nako · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grade 4-5, Classifying organisms into groups, factors of survival or extinction

-a book all about different size dinosaurs
-very informational book, many facts about the sizes, shapes, habitats of dinosaurs
-can be used to introduce a lesson in science about dinosaurs
-also can make a connection and be hands on because many kids like playing with toy dinosaurs and stories about these creatures
-i like how at the end of the book there is a comparison of lenghts and weights of dinosaurs accompanied by pictures

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My seven-year-old confrere was rapt for this one, too. We especially enjoyed the measurement of dinosaurs' lengths in four-foot-tall kid units, as well as their apparently more traditional weight measurement in elephant units. Who knew?

I probably learned almost as much from this book as my short sidekick did. It gave him plenty of practice with his numbers, too. I'll dream of itty-bitty eight-inch baby dinosaurs tonight. Two thumbs up.

[Gea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this whole series - Let's Read and Find out Science. Great pictures, interesting story/facts - I learn a lot from these books and so does my son.

[Samantha Penrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a good job of explaining just how big (or small) dinosaurs really were. exp...the first page shows 22 kids laid out next to a diplococus...

[Cool · Rating 3 out of 5]

DMW - the illustrations are pretty.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great information about many different dinosaurs, with sizes, what they ate, and behavior (lived in herds, etc.). No helpful name pronunciation guide.