Cover Image: Dictionary of Dinosaurs

Dictionary of Dinosaurs

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Member Reviews

Beautiful book and packed with information. Dieter Braun's illustrations are modern and interesting. Will be adding this to our school library for sure.

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I absolutely love this book and the art inside it. It's literally a dictionary -- A to Z -- of dinosaurs, with bright, beautiful illustrations of each and little scale icons to show how big each dino would be compared to a person. While there is not a lot of information about some of the dinosaurs (we simply don't know a lot about many of them), it gives basic information for each like:

Name, pronunciation, length, diet (herbivore, carnivore, etc.), when it lived, where it was found

There is often a paragraph or so with more interesting information, although not always.

The illustrations are what make this book for me. They are bright and almost fantasy-looking. The Albertaceratops is a lovely mixture of purple and pink spots, and he almost looks as if he was constructed out of paper. I find the art just beautiful, as opposed to the typical dark green and brown dinos we usually get. I understand that some might prefer those lizard-looking, normal types, but we don't really know for sure what color the dinosaurs were so why not use some creative license when drawing and painting them?

This is a fun book to flip through. It's not a reading book really, unless you're the type to enjoy reading other kinds of dictionaries. It's a great reference, though, and also just fun to skim to stoke your average kiddo's dinosaur interest.

My rating system:

1 = hated it
2 = it was okay
3 = liked it
4 = really liked it
5 = love it, plan to purchase, and/or would buy it again if it was lost

I read a temporary digital ARC of the book for the purpose of review.

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A big thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. This is a lovely book, with great pictures. The information is concise and good. Only down point was that the measurements were in meters not feet. So this may be confusing to kids in the US. Otherwise great reference! 4 stars

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Dictionary of Dinosaurs by Dieter Braun, Matthew G Baron is a recommendation for children and adults who never cease searching for another 'dinosaurs' book.

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Whoa. I just added this to my kids’ wish list. ‘Nuff said?

Dinosaurs are a mainstay in this house. We have dinosaur encyclopedias that have been read so many times they’ve fallen apart and been replaced several times over. We search far and wide to add out of circulation dino documentaries to our burgeoning collection. I’ve learned more about dinosaurs in the past eight years than in the entire 35 years before that. My kids are paleontologists in training…

My point? This Dictionary of Dinosaurs stumped me. I haven’t gotten it in front of my kiddos yet, but I feel strongly that there are dinosaurs in this book that they haven’t heard of. The beauty of it being a dictionary (rather than say, an encyclopedia) is each entry provides basic information – name, meaning of their name, pronunciation, time period in which it lived, length, diet, and where it was found – so there is room for every dinosaur ever discovered. Every. Single. One. Amazing, right?!?

There are colorful, fun illustrations throughout (though not of every dinosaur), and some dinosaurs got a little more page space due to extra information, but the winners of this glory were not just the usual suspects (lookin’ at you Tyrannosaurus). Gilmoreosaurus got a whole page to herself! So did Janenschia. And countless others that aren’t part of everyday dinosaur conversation (you talk about dinosaurs every day, right?). So exciting!

What more can I say? I am besotted. Every serious dinosaur lover should have this in their collection. End of.

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Another fun guide of dinosaur enthusiasts. After a brief introduction in dives into an ABC guide of both familiar and little known types of paleontologist wonders. including color images, this book is a great edition to any library of terrible lizards.

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Colorful though not realistic drawings—some even look art deco—of dinosaurs dominate the pages, with plenty of information and graphics strewn about in the area still available.
Pronunciation, English translation, size—with a human next to it for comparison—when and where it lived, and diet are all included on each page. And it really is a dictionary, with the entries in alphabetical order.
As it turns out, very few of the lizards get drawings; I assume there’s not enough known about most of them to illustrate them accurately.
Alvarezsaurus is certainly one of the strangest looking, though we can figure out how it was named.
Ankylosaurus would look cute and cuddly if it wasn’t for all those spikes.
Bambiraptor does not mean what you think it means.
There’s quite a few variations on the old triceratops.
Giraffatitan’s name speaks for itself.
Ornithomimus doesn’t live up to its grandiose name.
Oviraptor plunders the same things I do.
Pachirhinosaurus sounds badass, but it’s hard to take it seriously when its head looks like a South Pacific god head.
Hmmm, come to think of it, I learned a lot about dinosaurs. . .
3.5 pushed up to 4/5

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It's 4.5 stars, because I wanted a little bit more information. But even so, this book is amazing!! It is one of the best dictionaries that focuses on a specific topic and the big part of it is because of the illustrations!

The illustrator managed to create such a great style that worked so well with the subject of the book. I also love dinosaurs, but the art style in this book is AMAZING!

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My little boy really enjoyed this book and has been using the knowledge to teach me all about dinosaurs!! seems to have captured his interest and so I am happy with this

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My review appears on Weekend Notes. Thanks to the publishers for sharing this one. I loved the illustrations.

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I know this is for kids but I absolutely loved it, fascinating information, all clearly laid out and easy to read, loved it!

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Dictionary of Dinosaurs: An Illustrated A-Z of Every Dinosaur Ever Discovered does exactly what it says on the cover. The book is nearly 200 pages long, contains over 300 dinosaur profiles, and is packed full of illustrations and facts about every dinosaur you’ve ever heard of, and many more you won’t have. It is recommended for middle-grade readers but younger kids will love looking at the pictures and there’s plenty here for adults to enjoy too.

The very beginning of the book points out that information about dinosaurs changes very frequently and so the facts contained within its pages may soon become incorrect, but as of publication, the book is as accurate as can be hoped for from a book about such a rapidly evolving field of study. The introduction explains what dinosaurs are, when they lived, what we believe caused them to die out, and also briefly discusses fossils. There is also a rough timeline of the dinosaur eras, and a guide to using the book, then it’s on to the dino A-Z.

Dictionary of Dinosaurs contains every dinosaur ever “discovered and verified by a dinosaur expert” as of late 2018 which means hundreds of different dinos are included—there are 41 just in the letter A section! It’s worth pointing out that not every dinosaur has an illustration—there simply wouldn’t be room for that without making the book so huge as to become unwieldy—but all the ones you have heard of will almost certainly be illustrated. Many of the lesser-known dinosaurs have quite minimal entries but each one contains their name with an English translation, average length, diet, along with when and where it lived. The more well-known dinos get a paragraph of further information and there are many diagrams that show them to scale alongside an average human.

Most of the illustrations are simply the dinosaur against a white background, but there are few full-page illustrations that show them in landscapes. These are not realistic illustrations of dinosaurs as we now believe them to have looked, and are instead stylized versions with patterns and unusual colorings with an art style similar to National Parks of the USA which I reviewed earlier this year. I also noted that very few of the dinosaurs were shown with feathers despite current research suggesting that a far larger percentage of dinosaurs were feathered than we ever thought before.

This is a beautiful book that will appeal to dino-loving kids and also to adults looking to brush up on what’s changed in the world of dinosaurs since their own childhood infatuations. It’s ideal for homework help as well thanks to its easy-to-follow and clearly laid out format which makes looking up information simple and fun. An ideal gift for all dino fans and Jurassic World fans looking to learn a bit more about the real history behind the film series.

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Dictionary of Dinosaurs An illustrated A to Z of every dinosaur ever discovered by Dieter Braun and Matthew G Baron is a book I requested from NetGalley and the review is voluntary. I was really astounded by how many dinosaurs are listed in this book! I have four boys and when they were little were dino lovers like most kids and I think I looked at every dinosaur in the world but this book has some I have never seen! The illustrations are a bit different than what I expected. They are more "exotic" dinos, lol. Very colorful! Each dinosaurs not only has the name but a picture, info, and a scale of the dino next to an average size man next to it. I think this is a good book for all dino lovers!

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Dictionary of Dinosaurs is a really neat collection that lists all the dinosaurs discovered up to this point. Length, diet, and when/where the animal lived are provided for each dinosaur, as well as a name pronounciation guide (very helpful!) and the meaning of the name, some of which are very interesting. I learned that there is a dinosaur whose name was inspired by Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky poem (borogovia)!

On each page, a dinosaur or two (but not all of them) are highlighted with a color picture, a blurb of information, and a silhouetted picture comparing the dinosaur's size to that of a human. Most of the more well-known dinosaurs (tyrannosaurus, stegosaurus) are highlighted this way. Since marine reptiles and flying reptiles are no longer considered "dinosaurs" (something that apparently happened between when I was a kid and when I had kids old enough to like dinosaurs), they are unfortunately not included in this book.

In the beginning of the book is some general information about time periods, fossils, etc., but I found this statement interesting:

"New information about dinosaurs is being discovered all the time. Dinosaurs often change name, or their dates change once more information is found out about them. This means it's a very exciting field to get into and learn about. You could even discover or name the next dinosaur one day!"

In other places, the book notes that certain dinosaurs may not actually be separate species, but scientists made the best guess they could based on the evidence. I really like the way this portrays science as an ongoing effort rather than a static collection of information.

As is obvious from the title, this isn't likely the kind of book you'd want to sit down and read all in one sitting, but it's a great reference for dinosaur-loving kids, full of colorful pictures and current information -- for now!

(Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy.)

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Well done to this book for doing what I know of no other doing – listing all the known dinosaur species, arguing with itself as to whether some are the same or not, but just getting down to the nitty-gritty and not postulating about their roar, their this and that. In simple fact form you get the locations we've found them all, from when their remains came, and what the scientific name for them all means. Where more is known, we get a snappy paragraph to discuss their nature – the spine spikes, the diet allowed for by their elongated necks, or whatever. A couple of things stick in my mind as negatives – the pronunciation guide isn't universally helpful (and how can some of the -mimus ones be "mime-us" and others "mimus"?), and the other thing is the ever-contentious colouring. I can see merit in the design here, for the use of geometric patterning is both possible in some cases and just plain artistic and therefore perfectly reasonable in others. But really – that leptoceratops? Add a k- to its name and it's nicked every colour in the palette; it looks patently ridiculous. But I guess we'll never be perfectly accurate on the hues these creatures wore. What you do learn here, apart from the sheer diversity of these creatures (although they do more often than not come from the USA or China), is (a) how many we know of, (b), how many we clearly have yet to find to fill in the full evolutionary tree, (c) how silly some of the names are, and (d) that not all were humongous block-buster monsters, but rather smaller and more varied entities than Hollywood would have us believe. This is a book that preaches to the converted, and won't enamour anyone with dinosaurs that doesn't have their hooks in them, but it's a really good reference guide all told. A strong four stars.

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"Dictionary of Dinosaurs" no doubt is a superb book about all known dinosaurs to date compiled in one place. This book, by all means, is a "dictionary" on the extinct creatures, not an encyclopedia. A good reference guild but not scholarly. Basically it works like a conventional dictionary. Dinosaurs are cataloged in alphabetical orders. Readers look up the common (Latin) names of the dinosaurs they are interested in to find the fact boxes which provide the pronunciations, the literal meanings of the names in Latin, some basic information (i.e. places of origin, diet and as well the specific Mesozoic eras the dinosaurs lived.) Scale guides are particular useful to give readers a sense of the sizes of the dinosaurs compare to human. Some, but not all, dinosaurs are accompanied by colorful illustrations and additional information.

The book starts with a brief introduction of the history of the dinosaurs and the timeline of the Mesozoic era. To quench the curiosity of some younger readers, the book also provides explanations of how scientists using fossils and technologies to reconstruct the bygone history and creatures. The illustrations are beautiful but they are more on the fancier sides. Probably not the ideal representations (but good enough in my opinion) of the subject-matters but the illustrations do spice up the "dry" text. I remember when I was young, flipping through pages of the huge Oxford dictionary was fun because of the abundance of illustrations. The same concept applies to "Dictionary of Dinosaurs." There aren't much reading material but just definitions yet the whimsical graphics did help to retain my curiosity until I reached the end. Through that thoughtless process, I learned few interesting new things some dinos which I have never heard of.

One thing I love about the book was that I did pick up few Latin roots. The recognition of the common roots helps whenever I encounter new names of the dinosaurs which I have no knowledge of. I now can roughly tell the types/distinctive features/origins of the dinosaurs I am not familiar with.

"Dictionary of Dinosaurs" is definitely a must-have for young dinosaurs fanatics. This is a great handy reference but I am not sure if it appeals to average readers, young or older, who are not too crazy about the the subject-matter. Given the affordable price tag and the educational content, it is a good book to be considered for possible purchase. Among all the non-fiction imprints on dinosaurs, "Dictionary of Dinosaurs" definitely gives something unexpected to the readers.

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Oh my goodness! Be prepared to be blown away! This book is full of information, pictures and MORE! My boys and I learned so much about the different dinosaurs and loved every minute of reading through this Dictionary of Dinosaurs.

If you have a dino lover in your life, you need to check this book out. Great starting place for kids to get acquainted with different species, or for those who love dinos to learn more about them!

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This one would definitely be a great purchase from a museum gift shop as it appears quite thorough and informative with colorful illustrations. Both kids and adults who share an interest in dinosaurs would love this guide.

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From the publisher: Find out about every dinosaur that’s ever been discovered in this Dictionary of Dinosaurs! From Aardonyx to Zuniceratops, read about when they lived, where they lived, what they ate and much more. Featuring epic artwork from Dieter Braun, and up-to-date facts from top dinosaur experts. Includes the world's best loved dinosaurs such as Diplodocus, T-rex, Triceratops,Velociraptor, Stegosaurus and Brachiosaurus.

I enjoyed my review of this book and believe it to be an incredible resource to the upper elementary classroom. Each dinosaur listing in the dictionary provides a beautiful illustration, facts, pronunciation guide (very helpful!) meaning of the dinosaurs name in English (dinosaur names are in Latin), and when they were living on this earth, where they lived, and how big they are.

This book could be used in a geography lesson, that students could map out the dinosaurs around the world or it could be used in a math lesson to measure out how big the dinosaurs were (and then compare).

I have a rating system I use for those books I have read and reviewed on my blog. I have given this book four coffee cups, Cool Beans! I would like to thank both Netgalley and Quarto Publishing Group for the advanced digital reader copy they provided me in exchange for this honest review. I read this book as a part of my #BookaDay Reading Challenge, inspired by Donalyn Miller.

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What a stunning book of dinosaurs!
The illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, and the attention to detail is great!

It does get a little monotonous if you read it in one sitting, but to read a page a day with your little ones would be fantastic!

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