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A review by torts
Dinosaurus: The Complete Guide to Dinosaurs by Steve Parker
2.0
A big book with pictures of dinosaurs can't possibly be *bad.* But it was a little disappointing. The tone was a little condescending, holier-than-thou, more set on debunking "misconceptions" (did you know there's no such thing as a brontosaurus? that's cuz it's technically called something else! you're welcome! also, dinosaurs never chased down and ate elephants, because apparently some people think that that sort of thing happened! don't you feel almost as smart as me now?!) than on engaging with the reader about the possible implications of actual facts (like, that birds are dinosaurs).
To be fair, I only really read bits of the beginning and a few random pages. But this is a coffeetable-type book, something that readers are expected to peruse at random. It's mostly page upon page of fact sheets about different species, with a nifty little diagram that shows how big the dinosaurs were (in relation to humans, how homo-centric...). A bit of a problem with the diagrams, though: given the range of dinosaur sizes, the scale for the diagrams changes from page to page, so it's not a good way to imagine the dinosaurs relative to one another, only relative to a human being...which isn't particularly realistic.
I also didn't particularly like the style of the dinosaur illustrations. There's a bit in the front about how we can't know for sure what colors they were, and that all artist approximations are educated guesses. SO WHY ARE NONE OF THEM FUSCIA? IT'S NOT A GOOD SIGN FOR YOUR READERS WHEN EVEN THE DINOSAURS LOOK BORED.
To be fair, I only really read bits of the beginning and a few random pages. But this is a coffeetable-type book, something that readers are expected to peruse at random. It's mostly page upon page of fact sheets about different species, with a nifty little diagram that shows how big the dinosaurs were (in relation to humans, how homo-centric...). A bit of a problem with the diagrams, though: given the range of dinosaur sizes, the scale for the diagrams changes from page to page, so it's not a good way to imagine the dinosaurs relative to one another, only relative to a human being...which isn't particularly realistic.
I also didn't particularly like the style of the dinosaur illustrations. There's a bit in the front about how we can't know for sure what colors they were, and that all artist approximations are educated guesses. SO WHY ARE NONE OF THEM FUSCIA? IT'S NOT A GOOD SIGN FOR YOUR READERS WHEN EVEN THE DINOSAURS LOOK BORED.