Dinosaurs! My First Book About Carnivores (Dinosaurs! + Beyond Dinosaurs!)

Short version: Remember what I said about Dixon ( https://www.amazon.com/review/R2PUKOSQNJNGTF/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 )? The same goes for Blasing. However, even Dixon's worst dino book (I.e. "If Dinosaurs Were Alive Today") isn't as terrible as Blasing's "Dinosaurs! My First Book About Carnivores" (henceforth DM) & "Dinosaurs! My First Book About Herbivores". If you want a good children's dino book with a lot of diversity & an emphasis on diet, get Bonner's "Dining With Dinosaurs: A Tasty Guide to Mesozoic Munching" (which I reviewed: https://www.amazon.com/review/RP5K90YL2VODH/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ).Long version: Read on.Based on what I've read, Blasing is a nice guy (Google "Interview with Dinosaur George Blasing"), but a bad source of dino info. As you may remember, I reviewed "Dinosaur George and the Paleonauts: Raptor Island" ( https://www.amazon.com/review/R1ANUT6L08H5CM/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ) &, before that, compared another terrible book to "Jurassic Fight Club" ( https://www.amazon.com/review/R2FFY9S77ANRTK/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ). The Paleonauts series never went anywhere after 2013, so I thought Blasing gave up writing books. Unfortunately, he didn't. In this review, I list the 4 major problems with DM.1) As expected for a Blasing book, DM's writing is annoyingly hyperbolic (E.g. See the Blasing quote) & repetitive (E.g. The fact that most tetanurans had 3 fingers/claws per hand &/or stiff tails is stated in 9 out of 25 tetanuran profiles). It's also annoyingly generic, partly because of the repetition, & partly because of the lack of diversity, especially among maniraptorans: All 4 are eudromaeosaurs &, despite "a fair degree of anatomical variation" (Google "Realistic raptors: pop-culture dromaeosaurs vs current science, part 1"), mostly described as small, fast, bird-like pack-hunters with curved foot claws, stiff tails, & feathers; Microraptorians, unenlagines, halzskaraptorines, troodonts, oviraptorosaurs, & alvarezsaurs are completely ignored. The latter 2 writing problems could've been avoided with a good glossary or cladogram that clearly defines the major theropod groups.2) As expected for a Blasing book, DM is very hit-&-miss in terms of getting the facts straight.* There's an average of at least 4 or 5 factual errors per page in DM, a 68-page book. This is especially apparent in the Deinonychus profile. More specifically, it's claimed that Deinonychus "used the deadly curved claws on its feet to slice open its prey" (It didn't, as indicated by Fowler et al. 2011), that "its jaws were not very strong, so it used its hands to tear off pieces of meat" (They were & it didn't, as indicated by Gignac et al. 2010 & Fowler et al. 2011), that "its tail was so stiff, it couldn't even wiggle it" (It wasn't, as indicated by Persons & Currie 2012), that it ate plant-eating dinos "of all sizes" (As a mid-size predator, it obviously didn't), & that it lived in Utah (It didn't as far as we currently know) while ignoring Montana, Oklahoma, & Wyoming.3) As expected for a Blasing book, DM is very poorly-illustrated. I can't overstate how much I dislike looking at the Durantes' paleoart. It's 2003 Pixel-shack bad (Google "How (not) to keep dinosaurs"), which is especially apparent in the following ways:-1st, see the Holtz quote. Then, compare the preview pics featuring T.rex, Eoraptor, Compsognathus, Cryolophosaurus, Gallimimus, & Baryonyx to Hartman's skeletals (Google "IndexDr. Scott Hartman's Skeletal Drawing.com").-The scaly-skinned Compsognathus & Gallimimus alone should disqualify DM from being recommended as an educational book. Put another way, to paraphrase Holtz, "depicting a [non-tyrannosaurid coelurosaur] without feathers...would simply be antiscientific."**-To quote Witton (Google "Book review: Luis V. Rey's Extreme Dinosaurs Part 2: The Projects"), "Although other illustrators have copied Luis' once signature style of hyper-foreshortened dinosaurs, these imitators lack the flair and boldness of true Reyian foreshortening. Any artist can give you a faceful of gaping theropod, but only Luis will combine this with inflated air sacs, saturated colour schemes and some sort of crazy-complex integument." In this case, the Durantes are "these imitators". Don't take my word for it, though. Compare the front cover T.rex to any of Rey's foreshortened tyrannosaurids & see for yourself.-The Durantes' aren't just bad at anatomy & foreshortening, but also coloring (I.e. See "Lightroom – Vibrance VS Saturation", which might as well be titled, "Rey's colors VS the Durantes' colors": [jonsnyderphoto.com/lightroom-vibrance-vs-saturation] ).-It's also worth mentioning that at least some of the Durantes' dinos are shameless rip-offs of more famous reconstructions (E.g. Raul Martin's Concavenator).4) Despite Blasing's many claims to the contrary, including on page 64 & the back cover of DM, he is NOT a paleontologist (Google "Tutorial 10: how to become a palaeontologist"). To quote Jura (Google "JFC lockjaw – THE REPTIPAGE"), "qualifications are not what bug me about Mr. Blasing. It’s the fact that he presents himself as being equivalent to the scientists he interviews...So when Mr. Blasing spouts off something patently wrong like “dromaeosaurs could breathe through their bones,” or “megalodon was the size of a jumbo jet,” the audience at home will come away accepting that as a fact...he is impersonating a professional in the field, and in the process, he is misleading the public when he talks so matter of factly about some of his subjects." In other words, DM is authored by a non-expert who, in this case, neither collaborated with experts nor did enough up-to-date personal research. As indicated by my You review ( https://www.amazon.com/review/R2PBFKZ4BOZCNN/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ), there's no excuse for that.*Thank goodness for Molina-Pérez/Larramendi's "Dinosaur Facts and Figures: The Theropods and Other Dinosauriformes". You'd think it had been made specifically for fact-checking DM. 1 of my only non-editing gripes is that not every species comes with specific info about when they lived (E.g. Some come with "lower Maastrichtian, ca. 72.1–69 Ma", while others from the same time only come with "lUC" [late Upper Cretaceous]).**I brought this up twice when questioning/commenting on Jurassic Jabber's DM recommendation, only for it to be ignored (Google "SD: Why I can't take Jurassic Jabber seriously").Quoting Blasing: "Ceratosaurus and Allosaurus were two deadly giant carnivores. Ceratosaurus had a blade on its nose, a horn over each eye, and long, thin upper teeth that were perfect for slicing into prey."Quoting Holtz (Google "SD: Holtz's A Dinosaur Lover's Bookshelf"): "Paleoart is, admittedly, a difficult enterprise: after all, its subject matter is long dead, and science can never expect to know very much about the creaturers' external surfaces or, for that matter, any of their other perishable features. Nevertheless, there is one inviolate rule of dinosaur restoration: if the known fossil skeleton conflicts with the shape of the reconstruction, the reconstruction must be wrong. That rule gives the casual reader at least a fighting chance of separating the wheat from the chaff: distinguishing books that depict restorations consistent with fossil specimens from books that have more in common with medieval bestiaries, conjured from rumor and imagination alone. One reliable clue that a book belongs to the former group is the inclusion of drawings or photographs of the fossil skeletons on which the restorations are based."

This book is awesome! We read it together in one go and it inspired questions and comments and laughs when I tried to pronounce some of the names. Never fear - there is a pronunciation guide for each one. It provides descriptions that are relatable to kids and yet leaves some questions still to be answered to inspire continued growth of knowledge. Great book and I hope there are more to come!

We have been waiting for this book to be ready for shipping! My 7 year old has enjoyed Dinosaur George Blasing and loves all things dinosaur. It is filled with colorful illustrations and facts about each dinosaur.From Gabriel age 7—I like how it shows you all the little details about the dinosaurs, like how long they were and gives you real information. I like the pictures, some were gigantic!

This book is beautifully illustrated. The names of the dinosaurs are written out the way to pronounce them which is very helpful when reading to a toddler or for a young reader. The book is also packed with information . I highly recommend this book to any one with a child interested in dinosaurs.

Great book! My two and a half year old loves it, we read it almost daily. Wonderful illustrations, can tell it is a labor of love. Highly recommended!

We love Dinosaur George! This book is great quality.

My four year old can’t read it yet, but the pictures and variety keep him engaged! Mommy appreciates the pronunciation, and we both LOVE that the author actually cares about dinos- and kiddos!!

Great book, our 6 year old loves it! Has LOTS if dinosaurs with great facts and pictures. Can’t wait for Dinosaur George to do another!