Saturday, February 11, 2006

Could A Tyrannosaurus Play Table Tennis?

Could A Tyrannosaurus Play Table Tennis? by Andrew Plant (picture book).

An ABC picture book that asks, "could an Iguanodon ice skate?" "could a Lambeosaurus do the limbo?"

The Good: dinosaurs and kids are always a good mix. The pictures are realistic and colorful. Plant paints the dinosaur in scale to the modern day activity, to give the reader a grasp of just how big, or little, the dinosaur was.

For the scientifically inclined, each dinosaur also has a the pronunciation of its name (LAM-bee-oh-SORE-us), the meaning (Lamb's lizard), period (Cretaceous), area (North America), height (49 ft) and eating habits (herbivore). The different time periods are shown in a colorful chart on the inside front page.

The author is Australian, but he hasn't changed the terms used. He does understand that non Australians may be unfamiliar with some things, so there is a glossary for cricket, netball (I need to know this for all they Australian YA books I read!) and quoits. But in looking up Google, some of these are actively played in the US. Cool.

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