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Dinosaur Worlds
Boyds Mills Press publishes a wide range of high-quality fiction and nonfiction picture books, chapter books, novels, and nonfiction
- GenresDinosaurs
192 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 4, 2020
1 of Lessem's best/most underrated books ( www.amazon.com/review/R1SLNBX289TA4K/... ): 5/5
Short version: Before the "Walking with Dinosaurs" series, Lessem's "Dinosaur Worlds" (henceforth DW) was, & in some ways still is, the best children's dino book when it came to putting dinos into an evolutionary & ecological context. I recommend reading DW in conjunction with other, more recent books (E.g. Holtz's "Dinosaurs").
Long version: Read on.
You could say Don Lessem is the Don Bluth of dinos: Bluth's pre-1990 work is mostly good, while his post-1990 work is mostly not-so-good; The same goes for Lessem's pre- & post-2000 work, respectively. DW is 1 of Lessem's best/most underrated books: Underrated because it's less popular than it should be; Best because of the reasons listed below.
1) DW is very authoritative, having been authored by "one of the world's foremost authors and presenters of dinosaur information for children and adults" & scientifically supervised by 20 paleontologists, including Peter Dodson (Senior Scientific Advisor), Hans Sues (Animals), Leo Hickey & Robert Spicer (Plants), & Conrad Labandiera (Insects). To quote Taylor ( www.miketaylor.org.uk/dino/faq/s-lit/... ), "those are big guns firing."
2) DW is very complete. After the Introduction (which summarizes the geologic history & evolution, anatomy, ecology, & discovery of dinos), DW consists of 16 chapters, each of which focuses on a different Mesozoic site (4 Late Triassic, 1 Early Jurassic, 1 Middle Jurassic, 2 Late Jurassic, 4 Early Cretaceous, & 4 Late Cretaceous). Compare that to the 6 chapters of the "Walking with Dinosaurs" series (1 Late Triassic, 2 Late Jurassic, 2 Early Cretaceous, & 1 Late Cretaceous). Better still, using Holtz's "Dinosaurs" as a guide, DW features representatives of 26 different dino groups. Compare that to the 16 different dino groups of the "Walking with Dinosaurs" series.
3) DW is very in-depth. Using Chapter 1 (which focuses on Valley of the Moon, Northwestern Argentina, 228 MYA) as an example, each chapter consists of 5 sections: 1) A "major double-page [scene]" reconstructs the site's entire ecosystem ( http://web.archive.org/web/2019050808... ); 2) "A Look Back In Time" describes the site's environment (A river valley); 3) "Featured Creatures" describes some of the site's dinos & other organisms (Herrerasaurus, Eoraptor, Saurosuchus, & various insects & plants); 4) "Then And Now" compares the site's ecosystem to a modern ecosystem (That of western Wyoming); 5) "How Do We Know" examines the site's fossil evidence (The fossilized remains of Herrerasaurus).
4) DW puts dinos into an evolutionary & ecological context: 1st, see "Item Mentality and Dinosaurs in Popular Science" ( https://web.archive.org/web/201302011... ) & "Alternatives to the Item Mentality in Dinosaur Books and Art" ( https://web.archive.org/web/201703240... ) for why it's important that popular dino books do that; Then, see reasons #2 & 3 above for how DW does that.
If I could, I'd give DW a 4.5/5. My only gripes are as follows. However, for the purposes of this review, I'll round up to 5/5:
-While the illustrations by Kirk & Robins are mostly good (E.g. See reason #3 above), those by Field & James are mostly not-so-good (E.g. See the very derpy Giganotosaurus on the cover). Fortunately, the latter only make up ~1 third of the paleoart in DW.
-There are a few weird bits in the text. Again, using Chapter 1 as an example, it's claimed that "Eoraptor is an efficient hunter of[...]larger, slower plant-eaters" despite the fact that "Eoraptor[...]lacked an extra joint in the middle of its jaw" (which means that Eoraptor would've been limited to small prey).
Short version: Before the "Walking with Dinosaurs" series, Lessem's "Dinosaur Worlds" (henceforth DW) was, & in some ways still is, the best children's dino book when it came to putting dinos into an evolutionary & ecological context. I recommend reading DW in conjunction with other, more recent books (E.g. Holtz's "Dinosaurs").
Long version: Read on.
You could say Don Lessem is the Don Bluth of dinos: Bluth's pre-1990 work is mostly good, while his post-1990 work is mostly not-so-good; The same goes for Lessem's pre- & post-2000 work, respectively. DW is 1 of Lessem's best/most underrated books: Underrated because it's less popular than it should be; Best because of the reasons listed below.
1) DW is very authoritative, having been authored by "one of the world's foremost authors and presenters of dinosaur information for children and adults" & scientifically supervised by 20 paleontologists, including Peter Dodson (Senior Scientific Advisor), Hans Sues (Animals), Leo Hickey & Robert Spicer (Plants), & Conrad Labandiera (Insects). To quote Taylor ( www.miketaylor.org.uk/dino/faq/s-lit/... ), "those are big guns firing."
2) DW is very complete. After the Introduction (which summarizes the geologic history & evolution, anatomy, ecology, & discovery of dinos), DW consists of 16 chapters, each of which focuses on a different Mesozoic site (4 Late Triassic, 1 Early Jurassic, 1 Middle Jurassic, 2 Late Jurassic, 4 Early Cretaceous, & 4 Late Cretaceous). Compare that to the 6 chapters of the "Walking with Dinosaurs" series (1 Late Triassic, 2 Late Jurassic, 2 Early Cretaceous, & 1 Late Cretaceous). Better still, using Holtz's "Dinosaurs" as a guide, DW features representatives of 26 different dino groups. Compare that to the 16 different dino groups of the "Walking with Dinosaurs" series.
3) DW is very in-depth. Using Chapter 1 (which focuses on Valley of the Moon, Northwestern Argentina, 228 MYA) as an example, each chapter consists of 5 sections: 1) A "major double-page [scene]" reconstructs the site's entire ecosystem ( http://web.archive.org/web/2019050808... ); 2) "A Look Back In Time" describes the site's environment (A river valley); 3) "Featured Creatures" describes some of the site's dinos & other organisms (Herrerasaurus, Eoraptor, Saurosuchus, & various insects & plants); 4) "Then And Now" compares the site's ecosystem to a modern ecosystem (That of western Wyoming); 5) "How Do We Know" examines the site's fossil evidence (The fossilized remains of Herrerasaurus).
4) DW puts dinos into an evolutionary & ecological context: 1st, see "Item Mentality and Dinosaurs in Popular Science" ( https://web.archive.org/web/201302011... ) & "Alternatives to the Item Mentality in Dinosaur Books and Art" ( https://web.archive.org/web/201703240... ) for why it's important that popular dino books do that; Then, see reasons #2 & 3 above for how DW does that.
If I could, I'd give DW a 4.5/5. My only gripes are as follows. However, for the purposes of this review, I'll round up to 5/5:
-While the illustrations by Kirk & Robins are mostly good (E.g. See reason #3 above), those by Field & James are mostly not-so-good (E.g. See the very derpy Giganotosaurus on the cover). Fortunately, the latter only make up ~1 third of the paleoart in DW.
-There are a few weird bits in the text. Again, using Chapter 1 as an example, it's claimed that "Eoraptor is an efficient hunter of[...]larger, slower plant-eaters" despite the fact that "Eoraptor[...]lacked an extra joint in the middle of its jaw" (which means that Eoraptor would've been limited to small prey).
July 21, 2026
Read over and over to Henry. The pronunciations were helpful. Lots of questions about how they died (did they freeze or burn)? But otherwise thoroughly enjoyed by a newly minted 4 year old who loved to tell me everyone in the book was dead!
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July 2, 2009JEDINO-Les
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews