Creature Files: Dinosaurs by LJ Tracosas

Take a journey through time and meet some of the fiercest beasties to ever walk, swim, or fly on earth.

From the fearsome ‘tyrant king’ to the lumbering ‘heavy lizard’, LJ Tracosas introduces the reader to twenty different creatures from the Age of Dinosaurs. Spanning the Triassic to the Cretaceous, each dino has a stats box with height, weight, and size estimates, a box with tooth info, and a blurb with a fun fact. Accompanying each is a gorgeous full colour sketch. The first page or two are devoted to learning about fossils, and the last few plot the twenty dinosaurs along a timeline

My cubs and I enjoyed this short read. We all play the Jurassic World app game, and many of these dinosaurs were ones found in that game. I’m not sure if it’s coincidence, or drawing upon a familiar audience. Many of those cross-over dinos are among the more unusual, such as Corythosaurus and Majungasaurus. There are two water creatures, and one flying. We were disappointed with the preponderance of the great meat-eaters vs other types of dinos. Another armoured lizard, hadrosaur, or flyer would have been nice.

I found most of the painted pictures kinda goofy looking. Some were neat, like the velociraptor and the corythosaurus, but I felt most didn’t do justice to the beasts portrayed. My cubs enjoyed them a lot. An afternoon’s game of Saurs! resulted. Aahh, to be young and carefree again…

***Dos mere to Quarto Publishing/ Netgalley for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

 

Ultimate Expeditions: Dinosaur Hunter by Nancy Honovich

Join paleontologist Jackson Foster, and his team, on a fossil hunting expedition throughout North America, from Canada’s wilds to arid Arizona as they dig up some of the continent’s most unusual Saurs.

Honovich’s Ultimate Expeditions: Dinosaur Hunter takes the reader throughout North America, getting to know some of its most ancient residents. Each entry has basic stat information, such as height, length, estimated weight, era, and name pronunciation and meaning. Beautiful sketches are labelled with salient features of each beastie, and pertinent facts are listed with each. From battle scenes to nests with eggs and babes,, there are many lifestyle sketches that gave an idea as to how the dinosaurs lived. Most entries included pictures taken of the modern terrain, or of the fossils themselves.

I read this book with my cubs, and we all enjoyed the delightful drawings. Most of the creatures were plant-eaters of some type. I get that there was more variation among herbivorous dinos, but it would have been nice to see more than just t-rex and coelophysis as carnivores. Some of that may have had to do with the time frame the expedition took place in, though I think there had been finds falling in the raptor category by then. There was one pterosaur and one aquatic represented. Many of the dinos had sketches of close kin, such as parasaurolophus, and lambeosaurus with corythosaurus.

Perfect for the dinosaur lovers in your life!

***Dos mere to Quarto Publishing/ Netgalley for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

 

Catdoodles by Akiko Masuda

Masuda’s Catdoodles is a must have for any cat-lover. This cute art book will teach even the least artistically inclined to make adorable little kitties that can be sketched while waiting on the phone, ignoring classes, or any other time the mood strikes!

Catdoodles is a slender volume that can be taken most anywhere. The beginning gives ideas about how to draw and pattern cats. The remaining pages have scenes already started, and invite you to doodle the remainder in. These scenes range from simple to complex, and are in both colour and black & white.

I know doodling is supposed to be relaxing. I guess I find it to be so sometime, but even then, my picky nature demands greater perfection. I fair cringed at the pre-done doodles for lacking a certain measure of sophistication. Since this was an eARC, we couldn’t really use the pages, but my cubs did enjoy picking up on the doodle styles and putting them all over.

If you have any cat-loving casual doodlers in your life, this little artbook would make a great gift.

***Dos mere to Quarto Publishing/ Netgalley for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!