Dinosaurs – Page 2 – Unleashing Readers

Nibbles: The Dinosaur Guide by Emma Yarlett

July 29, 2017July 28, 2017 by Kellee

Nibbles: The Dinosaur Guide
Author and Illustrator: Emma Yarlett
Published 2017 by Kane Miller Publishing

Summary: NIBBLES, the book-eating MONSTER, has chomped his way into this book of DINOSAURS! Has he bitten off more than he can chew?!

What was a very serious book about very serious dinosaurs is suddenly interrupted by a hole – a nibbled hole – in the book. Who would do something like that?

Little ones will love trying to find the culprit – Nibbles – hiding among their favorite, easily recognizable dinosaurs. Is he an herbivore? A carnivore? Or … a bookivore?

Emma Yarlett’s Nibbles: The Dinosaur Guide is packed with flaps, folds, facts and die cuts, plus one very naughty monster and an ending to make Houdini proud. But has Nibbles bitten off more than he can chew?

Themes include humor and science.

Review: We love Nibbles. We have a stuffed Nibbles and have read the first one so many times (and it is one of my husband’s favorite picture books–he says it is so unique.) I am probably majorly biased when it comes to this review because OF COURSE we loved this one also. I mean, listen to this:

What is so interesting about this new book is that it takes the concept of Nibbles (a book eating monster) and takes him on a time-traveling adventure to the age of the dinosaurs using his eating/transporting powers. It is funny and educational. Just as the first one combined Nibbles’s antics with fairy tales, this one combined Nibbles with dinosaurs education!

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: What I love more about this one than the first one is that it has a cross-curricular component to it with the inclusion of dinosaurs and specific information about the dinosaurs. This allows the book to be used in reading, writing, and science lessons. I also think it’d be so much fun to have students write their own Nibbles story with him eating into a different topic than dinosaurs.

Discussion Questions: Which dinosaur was the scariest that Nibbles faced? The least scary?; What new information did you learn about dinosaurs?; What were the similarities and differences between the different dinosaurs Nibbles encountered?; What were the consequences of Nibbles jumping back in time?; If you were Nibbles, what book would you Nibble into? Where in time would you jump to?

Flagged Passages:

Book Trailer:

Message from the Author about Creativity:

Read This If You Love: Dinosaurs, Humor, Battle Bunny by Jon Scieszka and Mac Barnett, Nibbles: The Book Monster by Emma Yarlett

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Lynn at Kane Miller for providing a copy for review!!**

You Can be a Paleontologist!: Discovering Dinosaurs with Dr. Scott by Scott D. Sampson, Ph.D.

May 21, 2017May 3, 2017 by Kellee

Nonfiction Wednesday

Nonfiction Picture Book Wednesday is hosted by Kid Lit Frenzy and was started to help promote the reading of nonfiction texts. Most Wednesdays, we will be participating and will review a nonfiction text (though it may not always be a picture book).
Be sure to visit Kid Lit Frenzy and see what other nonfiction books are shared this week!

You Can Be a Paleontologist!: Discovering Dinosaurs with Dr. Scott
Author: Scott D. Sampson, Ph.D.
Illustrator: Franco Tempesta
Published April 4th, 2017 by National Geographic Kids

Summary: Ever wondered how to find a dinosaur? Paleontologist Dr. Scott Sampson, host of Dinosaur Train on PBS Kids, tells kids how! How do paleontologists find dinosaur bones? How do they know what dinosaurs ate or looked like? And what is paleontology, anyway? Dr. Scott tackles all these questions and more while inspiring kids to go out and make the next big dino discovery!

About the Author: Scott Sampson is a dinosaur paleontologist, science communicator, and passionate advocate for connecting people with nature. He currently serves as president and CEO of Science World British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C., where much of his work focuses on rethinking 21st Century cities as places where people and nature thrive. Nevertheless, he’s perhaps best known as “Dr. Scott,” host and science advisor of the Emmy-nominated PBS KIDS series Dinosaur Train, produced by the Jim Henson Company. Dinosaur Train is currently viewed daily by millions of children and parents in more than 100 countries. Sampson also served as the on-air host and science advisor for the four-part Discovery Channel series Dinosaur Planet (2003). He has given hundreds of media interviews for radio (e.g., NPR), newspapers (e.g., New York Times), multimedia newswire services (e.g., Reuters), television (e.g., The Today Show, Good Morning America), and periodicals (e.g., Time Magazine, National Geographic). He has been featured in more than a dozen documentaries, including Nova, Paleoworld, and Nature Kids. Sampson is a widely sought public speaker, presenting on topics ranging from dinosaurs and education to children, nature, and sustainability. Sampson is author of Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life (University of California Press, 2009), as well as a new general audience book—How to Raise a Wild Child—aimed at helping parents, teachers and others foster a deep connection with nature in children (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015). He lives in Denver, Colorado with his wife Toni and daughter Jade.

Review: Kids love Dr. Scott on Dinosaur Train on PBS, and there is a reason why: HE LOVES HIS JOB! And that love just flows through this book. His descriptions of everything from where to find fossils, where they are stored, and why dinos looked so weird are so animated, lively, and interesting and the text is so kid friendly! It is set up in a way that is easy to follow if you want to read it sequentially or the reader can jump around to get answers to their questions. The information isn’t dumbed down for kids, which is something I really try to watch out for because it is a huge pet peeve of mine!, but it is definitely written in a way that most readers will be able to understand. As for hard tier 3 academic words, there is a glossary!

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Do you know that student you have who has read every dinosaur book in your library but just wants to know more and more? This book is for them. This shows them that they can take their passion and make a living out of it! The text would also find a very nice home in classrooms to discuss how science is used in the real world. I hope there are more books in this series because it would be definitely a wonderful asset to elementary classrooms to have books written by scientists for kids about being a scientist.

Discussion Questions: What do you have to do to become a paleontologist?; What would your job consist of if you become a paleontologist?; What interesting information about dinosaurs have paleontologists discovered?; What other questions do you have about being a paleontologist?

Flagged Passages:

Read This If You Love: Dinosaurs, Sharing scientists with kids

Recommended For:

**Thank you Karen at Media Masters Publicity for providing a copy for review!**

Tales from the Arabian Nights: Stories of Adventure, Magic, Love, and Betrayal by Donna Jo Napoli

January 11, 2017 by Kellee

Nonfiction Wednesday

Tales from the Arabian Nights: Stories of Adventure, Magic, Love, and Betrayal by Donna Jo Napoli
Author: Donna Jo Napoli
Illustrator: Christina Balit
Published October 11th, 2016 by National Geographic Children’s Books

Summary: Classic stories and dazzling illustrations of princesses, kings, sailors, and genies come to life in a stunning retelling of the Arabian folk tales from One Thousand and One Nights and other collections, including those of Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. The magical storytelling of award-winning author Donna Jo Napoli dramatizes these timeless tales and ignites childrens’ imaginations.

Review: This short story anthology of Arabian mythology was fascinating, captivating, and beautifully written and illustrated. The layers of themes and stories built upon each other to create a collection that is a wonderful introduction to true traditional literature.

One thing that I at first struggled with but then ended up loving was how stories overlapped with stories. The main story was that a young woman was telling her husband a story every night to keep him in suspense so that he keeps her alive for another night. So within her story, she is telling stories. Then sometimes the characters in her stories, to help her add suspense and cliffhangers, will tell stories. So that meant at times the story you were reading was a story within a story within a story. Sounds confusing but the way it was explained and implemented allowed for the tactic to do what the young woman hoped it would do for her husband–I just had to keep reading!

I also, in my ignorance, had not read any Arabian traditional literature as I only knew the pop culture versions, so I loved learning about the culture and history through their folk tales.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: Greek mythology is taught throughout school; however, there are folk tales and mythology from so many other cultures. I would love to see more Arabian folk tales taught during mythology units (and why not more folk tales and mythology from other cultures as well!). Donna Jo Napoli along with Christina Balit already have anthologies for Egyptian and Norse (and Greek), so those are a good place to start!

Discussion Questions: What are some themes you see throughout all of the tales?; How are the stories you were familiar with different than the popular culture versions you knew?

Flagged Passages:

“Princess Budur unfoldedthe letter and her own ring dropped into her palm. She read the letter. At last! She planted her feet against the wall and strained until the iron around her neck snapped. She pulled the curtain aside and threw herself into Qamar al-Zaman’s arms. On that day they were wed.” (p. 72-73)

Read This If You Love: The Arabian Nights by various and other Middle Eastern or Asian stories and folk tales, mythology

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Karen at Media Masters Publicity for providing a copy for review!!**

Dining with Dinosaurs: A Tasty Guide to Mesozoic Munching by Hannah Bonner

January 4, 2017 by Kellee

Nonfiction Wednesday

Also, I’d like to thank Sarah Brannen for making such a beautiful piece of artwork for our weekly nonfiction link up. It is perfect for illustrating why nonfiction is so important!

Dining with Dinosaurs: A Tasty Guide to Mesozoic Munching
Author: Hannah Bonner
Published September 20th, 2016 by National Geographic Children’s Books

Summary: Sure you know T-Rex was the meat-eating king and brontosaurus munched on leaves, but what else was on the dino dining menu during the Mesozoic era?

Meet the ‘vores: carnivores, piscivores, herbivores, insectivores, “trashivores,” “sunivores,” and omnivores like us.

Readers will be surprised and inspired to learn about dino diets and they’ll get to explore how scientists can tell which dinosaurs ate what just from looking at fossils!

Journey through artist and author Hannah Bonner’s whimsical world to learn how the dinosaurs and their contemporaries bit, chewed, and soaked up their food.

Review: Although the cover looks a bit silly, this text is to be taken seriously. Hannah Bonner does a wonderful job examining what different dinosaurs ate, the science behind what and why they ate what they did, how paleontologists know what dinos ate, and where all these dinosaurs fit in the grand scheme of things. Told in a unique structure that alternates between Hannah and a microraptor narrating and comic strip interviews with scientists, the text is not only informative but very entertaining.

Teachers’ Tools for Navigation: This is going to be the perfect text for a dinosaur unit in a classroom. It allows for so many different discussions including the different periods within the Mesozoic Era (and Cenozoic Era), connections between dinosaur diets and modern animals, types of scientists that study dinosaurs, different species of dinosaurs, and even text structure. Such a wide range of opportunities for classroom discussion (and even extension activities from the discussions). Additionally, the back matter of the text is filled to the brim with information and even an experiment.

Discussion Questions: What are some ways paleontologists can tell which dinosaurs ate what?; What modern animals fit into each of the ‘vore categories in the text?; Why did the author choose to include the comic strip interviews throughout the book?

Flagged Passages:

Read This If You Love: Dinosaurs

Recommended For:

**Thank you to Karen at Media Masters Publicity for providing a copy for review!!**

Pirasaurs! by Josh Funk

August 31, 2016 by Kellee

Pirasaurs!
Author: Josh Funk
Illustrator: Michael Slack
Published August 30th, 2016

Summary: We’re Pirasaurs! We’re Pirasaurs!
We rule the open seas!
We’ll cannon-blast you to the past!
We do just what we please!

Meet the Pirasaurs, a ragtag team of seasoned pirate dinosaurs looking for adventure and treasure! There’s fearsome Captain Rex, golden-toothed Velocimate, one-eyed Bronto Beard, and more fearsome, buccaneering beasts….as well as one new recruit who may be small, but who’s eager to prove he can learn the ropes and find his place on the team.

But when a trap is set upon the Pirasaurs while looking for buried treasure, it’s up to the littlest recruit to show the team that there’s more to a Pirasaur than meets the eye patch!

“We’re Pirasaurs! We’re Pirasaurs!
We grunt and roar and sneer!
We’ll steal your books with tails and hooks
And own the blogosphere!

We’re Pirasaurs! We’re Pirasaurs!
We pose a giant threat!
We’ll slash and duel and soon we’ll rule
The world-wide internet!

We’re Pirasaurs! We’re Pirasaurs!
Our story is fantastic!
This grand hardback by Funk & Slack
Is published by Scholastic!

… and will be available on August 30th wherever books are sold!”

-Funk, 2016

Kellee’s Review: Pirate dinosaurs?! I am so glad that Josh Funk thought of this because it makes a perfect picture book! Who doesn’t like dinosaurs or pirates or both?! I will tell you that my son definitely does! I mean, look at that face!

But in addition to how much we like the premise, it is done so well. Josh Funk must think in rhyme because his books rhyme so seamlessly, and it is so impressive. I also liked the characterization within the book because there are some wonderful pirasaur characters that each have such fun personality. And all of this isn’t even mentioning the colorful, beautiful illustrations!

Ricki’s Review: The concept! Ahhhh, the concept! This book had my son RAWGHing for days. It is books like Pirasaurs! that make readers. It shows kids that reading can be really fun and engaging, and I am grateful to have this book in my collection. The words flow beautifully, and the rhymes rolled off of my tongue as I read them. The illustrations pop, and I couldn’t stop smiling as I turned each page. The book takes readers for an adventure that they will remember long after the book ends. Each of the pirasaurs has a different, cooky personality—and my goodness are they hilarious! I highly recommend you get your hands on this book. It’s a winner.

Teachers’ Tools of Navigation: Pirasaurs! would be a perfect mentor text to discuss prediction, rhyme/rhythm, and characterization. First, while reading, stop just when the battle is beginning and have your students predict what they think is going to happen next. Remind them to use prior knowledge or text evidence to support their prediction. Then at the end of the book, students can check their predictions. When finished, the text can be used to analyze rhyme scheme and rhythm. Finally, students can analyze the character traits of each character and look for descriptive language that shows each character’s personality.

Discussion Questions: What are the character traits of each pirasaur?; What rhyme scheme does the book follow?; What do you think is going to happen after the battle?; What jobs do each pirasaur have? How can you tell?; What is the theme of the story?

Book Trailer:

Read This If You Loved: How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long; How Big Were Dinosaurs? by Lita Judge; Ladder to: The Pirate Pig by Cornelia Funke, The High Skies Adventures of Blue Jay the Pirate by Scott Nash, Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow (series) by Rob Kidd

Recommended For:

and

**Thank you to Josh Funk for everything!**

Pirasaurs Attack Tour!: Preview of Pirasuars by Josh Funk

August 18, 2016August 4, 2016 by Ricki

It’s no secret that we are huge fans of author Josh Funk. We are incredibly excited for the release of his book, Pirasaurs!. With Michael H. Slack as the illustrator, this is bound to be a favorite of ours. We are particularly excited about what this book will mean for our sons. The combination of pirates and dinosaurs just might make Henry’s and Trent’s heads explode!

We are honored to have been selected to feature an exclusive (1 of 5!) Pirasaurs! animated gif as part of the Pirasaurs Attack Preview “tour”, and we are sharing it with you!:

Doesn’t he look pleased? Let’s take a look at the book summary again, as we eagerly anticipate its arrival on August 30 (Orchard Books):

We’re Pirasaurs! We’re Pirasaurs!
We rule the open seas!
We’ll cannon-blast you to the past!
We do just what we please!

But when a trap is set upon the Pirasaurs while looking for buried treasure, it’s up to the littlest recruit to show the team that there’s more to a Pirasaur than meets the eye patch!

We can’t wait to get our hands on copies of this book. It is going to be a classroom and family favorite!

“We’re Pirasaurs! We’re Pirasaurs!
We grunt and roar and sneer!
We’ll steal your books with tails and hooks
And own the blogosphere!

We’re Pirasaurs! We’re Pirasaurs!
We pose a giant threat!
We’ll slash and duel and soon we’ll rule
The world-wide internet!

We’re Pirasaurs! We’re Pirasaurs!
Our story is fantastic!
This grand hardback by Funk & Slack
Is published by Scholastic!

… and will be available on August 30th wherever books are sold!”

-Funk, 2016

(Feel free to use this image as a profile pic in anticipation of Pirasaur’s release!)

RAWRGH!

and

The Dino Files: A Mysterious Egg by Stacy McAnulty

August 18, 2016July 28, 2016 by Ricki

The Dino Files #1: A Mysterious Egg
Author: Stacy McAnulty
Illustrator: Mike Boldt
Published: January 19, 2016 by Random House Kids

Summary: What if a fossil in your backyard . . . came to life?!

Frank’s grandma is a famous paleontologist (that’s a dinosaur scientist). But she’s also an adult who makes up rules. Rules like: no digging for dinosaur bones when you have a sunburn. That means Frank is stuck playing inside with his annoying cousin, Samantha. But then Grandma finds a fossil of an egg! And when Frank and Sam sneak into the dino lab late at night, they find something even more amazing. . . .

The hilarious Dino Files chapter book series follows a nine-year-old dinosaur expert, his paleontologist grandparents, a cat named Saurus, and fossils that might not be so extinct!

About the Author: Stacy McAnulty is the author of several children’s books including Excellent Ed, illustrated by Julia Sarcone-Roach; The Dino Files series, illustrated by Mike Boldt; and 101 Reasons Why I’m Not Taking a Bath, illustrated by Joy Ang. Stacy grew up outside of Albany, New York and received my B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University at Buffalo. A career opportunity brought her to central North Carolina in 1998. She currently lives in Kernersville, NC with her husband, their three children and two dogs.

Also, Stacy offers FREE Skype interviews and signed bookmarks to any class reading The Dino Files!

Ricki’s Review: This is a hilariously fun series that is sure to be a hit in classrooms. I see it working best in grades 1-4. As a child, I was disappointed when my chapter books no longer had pictures, and this book is a great transitional book because it has the best of both worlds—a great story and pictures to go along with it! Frank reminds me of many kids. He is frustrated by all of the rules set out for him, and he just wants to have fun. He manages to sneak around a bit and something awesome happens with that dinosaur egg (I’ll let you guess)! I also want to put in a plug for the fact that Frank is a cat lover. My son loves cats, and I hate how books/shows always feature males as dog lovers and females as cat lovers. I loved Saurus the cat!

Kellee’s Review: I plowed through this and the sequel because I loved the premise and the characters so much! I love that Frank and Sam represent such different types of kids within each of them and between each of them; I think so many readers will relate to their personalities. I also really liked how dinosaurs are introduced throughout the book without making the book didactical in any way. Instead it is educational and funny! This series is a wonderful introduction to early chapter books also because it is very engaging and will appeal to all kinds of readers.

Teacher’s Tools for Navigation: This book is a great jump start to researching about dinosaurs! I know a lot of early elementary schools have a big dinosaur unit, and I think this book would appeal to readers of all ages. The book might also work well for a fossil unit, too! It would be interesting to investigate whether it would be possible to hatch a fossilized dino egg. Then, the class could have a discussion about whether this book might be considered realistic fiction or fantasy. Further activities and information is available at: www.thedinofiles.com.

Discussion Questions: What good choices does Frank make? What bad choices does he make? What are the outcomes of his choices?; What words would you use to describe Frank? How is he different or similar to you?; What rules is Frank forced to follow? Do you think these rules are fair?; How do the illustrations enhance your reading experience?

Flagged Passage: “I need to be at that dig site! Instead, I’m stuck inside the museum with PopPop. The good thing is I got my own name tag. Finally.”

Read This If You Loved: Dinosaur Cove by Rex Stone; Dinosaur Trouble by Dick King Smith; Dinosaur Pox by Jeremy Strong

Recommended For:

Check Out the Other Books in the Series!:

and

**Thank you to Stacy for providing copies for review!!**