Kaleidoscope of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life

Kaleidoscope of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life. Their Colours and Patters Explained by Greer Stothers a wide eyed book

Gifted but all thoughts mine and F’s the five year old!

F is dinosaur obsessed, we have so many dinosaur books but this one is up there with the best.

This book talks about fossils, how the dinosaurs evolved and also has a page on mythical creatures (which I loved). F’s fave page was about the sea creatures.

The book has beautiful illustrations which steal the show but also ensure that it is accessible to a wide age range. F enjoys its now as he liked the facts which went with the illustrations but I’m sure he would have liked it a 3years just for the pictures. I can also see us looking at this book for the next few years. A great gift and investment book.

F gives it five stars and when asked why it’s for the photo of fossil poo!

As solid 4 stars overall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Kaleidoscope of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Life is a new science based children's book on the biology behind the colors, shapes, and patterns of prehistoric creatures and nature. Due out 22nd March 2022 from Quarto on their Wide Eyed Editions imprint, it's 64 pages and will be available in hardcover format. It's unclear from the publishing info available online if there are currently any plans for electronic format.

Although aimed at young readers, there is a lot of information here which will probably be new to most of the audience, whatever their age. The text is accessible, accurate, and precise (to the best of current scientific understanding) and the information is explained logically and well. The book divides the animal kingdom by following the Linnaean classification system into vertebrates and invertebrates and then further by phyla, family, etc. The *types* of coloration and the reasons behind them are covered in two-page spreads with explanatory text and examples: fossilization, melanophores, juvenile to adult coloration, sexual dimorphism (different colors for male and female of the same species), the biomechanics behind color changing cells, and more. The illustrations are drawn throughout the book.

The entire book is beautifully illustrated with bright colors and clear pictures. The drawings are very simple, but clear enough to recognize and enjoy. It will provide a good resource for budding scientists to practice drawing for their field journals by copying some of the drawings in this volume. The art (according to the endpapers) was produced using risography, a term and process with which I was previously unfamiliar. The text is high contrast and easy to read.

Five stars. This would be a superlative selection for school or public library acquisition, youth nature/garden groups, scouts, library activity groups, for gifting, or for the home or homeschooling library.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I really enjoy Wide Eyed Editions and this was no exception. Looking at a wide range of topics, from how fossils are created, how palaeontologists can tell what colour prehistoric creatures were, new ideas about what they may have looked like, different extinction events, and different ways of gaining information. I particularly liked the sections looking at how we can learn about now extinct animals from ancient cave paintings from around the world, highlighting their accuracy and detail. Each spread is well set out, a good combination of illustration and facts, enough to spark interest in finding out more. Very enjoyable.