Quick Kids Reviews #7

 Title: Jurassic Giants
Author: Jacqueline A. Ball
Illustrator: Eldar Zakirov
Source: Free ARC from becker&mayer! kids

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Note: As stated under the Source (above), I received this book for free from becker&mayer! kids via NetGalley. I pride myself on writing fair and honest reviews.

Goodreads Summary: “Jurassic Giants gives you an up-close and personal look at T. rex—and its favorite meals. Fierce predators, epic battles, enormous teeth—life in the Mesozoic Era was really hard … unless, of course, you happened to be a Tyrannosaurus rex! With its powerful jaws and its keen sense of smell, this King of the Cretaceous had no problem tracking down, killing, and eating its prey.

Tyrannosaurus rex may have reigned supreme, but there were lots of other predators to worry about: Giganotosaurus, Spinosaurus, Allosaurus, and Utahraptor to name a few.

How did leaf eaters survive in a world full of carnivores? What caused the dinosaurs to go extinct? And where can you see a T. rex skeleton for yourself? Find the answers to these questions and more, inside. After learning tons of awesome facts, kids will get a thrill out of creating their very own terrible T. rex skeleton.”

Review: While I was reading this, I was looking for references to dinosaurs my 8-year-old son hadn’t heard of and when I came across two I didn’t know (saltopus and staurikosaurus) and asked him, he immediately ran over to see what I was doing (of course, he’d heard of them). We went through the book together and he immediately insisted that he needed it, which should be more than enough recommendation in my book. 😉 (He also thought it was awesome that I got to review it!)

We both agreed that the illustrations were super life-like, like still life paintings, and we appreciated that realistic scenes of carnivores eating were included (not gory, but informative). The book is brimming with interesting facts about different types of dinosaurs and other creatures from the Jurassic period, as well as explaining which types of dinosaurs are relatives of modern-day birds. Since I read an e-galley, I didn’t have access to the t-rex model that the child can build, but my son and I agree that is an awesome feature.

A great book for kiddos who love dinosaurs!

Title: One Day, So Many Ways
Author: Laura Hall
Illustrator: Loris Lora
Source: Free ARC from Frances Lincoln Children’s Books

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Note: As stated under the Source (above), I received this book for free from Frances Lincoln Children’s Books via NetGalley. I pride myself on writing fair and honest reviews.

The concept of this book was appealing: look into the lives of other children around the world to see what you have in common and the interesting ways in which you are different. As someone who traveled a fair amount before having kids, these are exactly the kinds of things I want my kids exposed to. If you can’t travel with your children (because of their age, a tight budget, or physical limitations, etc.), I believe it’s critical in this global society to expose them to other cultures, other ways of living. It seemed like this book might be a good step in that direction.

While the book does represent a large variety of children from different countries, sharing information about the names they might have, the foods they might eat, and various other experiences throughout their day, it felt overly long for the information it provided. The illustrations were fun, but the format didn’t really work for me. 40 countries are too many to fairly cover in a picture book. Leaving it at maybe 20 countries and providing more in-depth information would have suited better. Because there were so many different countries covered, and each not covered in every section, it felt like little was actually learned about any particular country or culture.

I wanted to love it, but I couldn’t. Readers might be better served finding children’s books from different countries, or children’s books that focused on only a few countries at a time.