Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages

Reviewed by Jennifer Wardrip, aka "The Genius" for TeensReadToo.com

I am not a paleontologist (obviously). I am not, truth be told, even a dinosaur fanatic. What I am is a reader who is always looking to extend my knowledge base on interesting subjects, and this dinosaur encyclopedia fulfills that quest in spades!

Everything you could ever want to know about dinosaurs -- all types, all genuses, all sizes and shapes and colors -- is detailed, extensively, within the pages of DINOSAURS. There are wonderful illustrations by Luis V. Rey, timelines, graphs, rock cycles, detailed drawings of skeletons -- you name it, and this book has it. With an appendix that includes a 48-page Dinosaur Genus List and a Glossary of hundreds of terms, this is pretty much the only encyclopedia on dinosaurs that you're ever going to need.

I'm sure that some scientifically-minded people will yearn to find something that is missing, and they may even find it. But for the general dinosaur lover, this is definitely the book to add to your collection. Although the reading level is too advanced for younger children, those over the age of eight will find plenty to keep them interested and entertained.

DINOSAURS is highly recommended for classroom and home libraries, or as the perfect present for that dinosaur crazy kid on your gift list.

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Dinosaurs: the Most Complete, Up-to-date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages: The best dinosaur book in the world (5 stars)

If you can only get one dinosaur book, get this one. And if you know anyone who is even remotely interested in dinosaurs and doesn't have this book, give a copy to them as a gift.
This book has all bases covered. It starts out with a few introductory chapters on the history of paleontology, fossilization, the age of the earth, taxonomy, paleo art, cladistics, and the origin of dinosaurs. Most of the book, however, is split up into chapters that discuss the various dinosaur groups, their history, phylogeny, appearance, and possible behavior. The last few chapters talk about physiology, extinction, how scientists figure out dinosaur behavior, and go into more detail about the history of the Mesozoic era. The appendix is a list of all dinosaur genera known at the time of publication and includes information on their age, size, and etymology. By the time you finish with it, you'll know almost all there is to know about dinosaurs.
The writing is crystal clear and easy for laypeople, including children, to understand, and the tone is quite humorous and conversational. (I happen to have seen Dr. Thomas Holtz on some documentary shows, and he really talks similar to the way he writes.) Even comparatively complicated subjects like cladistics are easily explained. Luis Rey's art is wonderful and extremely vibrant, as it always is. Some of his illustrations in this book are old, but many are new. A few are updated versions of old paintings. There is even a particularly weird/creepy illustration on the very last page of the book to surprise readers.
Because this book is written by a professional paleontologist, one can trust that its information is highly accurate and mentions all the latest research. (And although dinosaur paleontology changes so quickly that even this book has been outdated in some respects, Dr. Holtz is thoughtful enough to provide updates on his website.) There are other volumes like this, but many of them are quite technical. It's good to see one made available for laypeople to read.

Best Encyclopedia Of Dinosaurs Ever!!!

I love this book1! It is the best book I ever read! Thomas Holt did a great job and the illustrations Luis Rey made were excellent. I would recomend this to anyone who likes dinosaur.

VIsually exciting and scientifically flawless

Holtz and Rey's i Dinosaurs /i raises the bar not just for all dinosaur books but for all children's books on any subject. I have never -- never -- seen a children's non-fiction book tackle its subject so head-on, in such depth, and with such approachability as this new encyclopedia does. It has something for everyone: the youngest child can enjoy Luis Rey's distinctive, dynamic illustrations slightly older children will appreciate the descriptions of individual dinosaurs those older still will be able to understand chapters on the history of dinosaurs, the fossilisation process, geological time and more. And even most adults will learn something from the chapter on cladistics -- surely a first in a book aimed primarily at children. Tom Holtz is respected as one of the world's leading experts on tyrannosaurs, and more generally for his gift of explaining complex concepts as simply and clearly as possible. His prose is easy to read without being condescending, and always informative. Luis Rey is known for his characteristically colourful and feathery dinosaur art: his work could not be more different from the ``old-school'' dinosaur art of Knight and Burian: it's a welcome antidote to the dull, slow image of dinosaurs that predominated in the books of twenty or even ten years ago. That vividness is combined with a scientific rigour that is by no means universal in dinosaur art to give a new and exciting view of how dinosaurs may well have looked in life. The book's coverage is impressively complete. An appendix gives basic information on every dinosaur named at the time of publication (about 800 genera), and the main part of the book is a sequence of chapters describing particular dinosaur groups in much more detail. For example, there are separate chapters about coelophysoids and ceratosaurs, spinosauroids, carnosaurs, primitive coelurosaurs, tyrannosauroids, ornithomimosaurs and alvarezsaurs, oviraptorosaurs and therizinosauroids, deinonychosaurs and avialans -- and that's just the theropods! Ornithischians are covered in similar detail, and while sauropodomorphs as usual draw the short straw, they do at least receive four chapters (twice as many as in i The Dinosauria /i , 2nd edition!) Not only that, the book is BIG -- roughly A4 in size and a good inch thick, printed on thick, glossy paper. Weighing in at a solid 1.7 kg, it has the heft of a proper encyclopedia. At the price (currently $25.19) it's truly absurd value for money, and sits comfortably on the shelf alongside the Glut and Currie-and-Padian encyclopedias costing five times as much. If I had to criticise this book, then its one imperfection would the absence of a chapter on osteology. A tour of the dinosaur skeleton, explaining the names of the bones, how they fit together and what they do would have been a perfect fit for the more advanced material that's already included. But when the only thing you can criticise about a book is that you wish there was more of it, you know you're on to a good thing.

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