Here’s another fun, factual book for slightly older children – How Dinosaurs Really Work! by Alan Snow (Simon & Schuster, 2012) is part of fils aîné‘s recent library haul. It includes all kinds of facts and figures about all kinds of dinosaurs, presented with detailed illustrations, cartoons, jokes and so on. You can get an idea of the level from the fact that one of the questions asked on the back cover is “Could a Carnotaurus pick its nose”, although there’s not quite enough about poo to fully grab the six-year-old market.
It’s crammed full of questions of that kind, along with “How much could a T-rex eat in one bite?”, “Did the Triceratops lay eggs?” and so on and written in a cheerily irreverent tone: “dinosaurs didn’t exist when your parents were young so attacks on the way to school weren’t a problem”. There’s plenty here to keep the most fervent dinosaur fan interested for at least a little while and while it might not hold advanced-level devotees for long, the pictures should mean that there’s always something new to spot on a re-read.
