How Big Were Dinosaurs?

Judge (Born to Be Giants) revisits familiar territory with this lighthearted but factual look at dinosaur size. Moving from smallest to largest, her illustrations juxtapose 12 dinos with modern-day objects and animals for comparison. A close-up of a fierce microraptor is followed by a scene showing the same microraptor cowering in the presence of a crowing rooster. Slightly anthropomorphized facial expressions increase the cuteness factor of the realistically rendered creatures, and humorous comparison scenarios abound: a struthiomimus is shown in the lead at a horse race, and a woman with a broom tries to keep a tsintaosaurus from devouring her garden. The concise narrative jauntily moves through the tongue-twisting dinosaur names and their dimensions ("Even velociraptor, a dinosaur that fills our imagination with its flesh-ripping claws and powerful jaws, was only the size of a dog"). Concluding notes explain how fossils are formed and how scientists use them to figure out dinosaur size. The notes open into a four-page gatefold showing all of the prehistoric and modern creatures alongside each other, giving readers a feel for their relative size. Ages 6-9. Agent: Linda Pratt, Wernick & Pratt. (Aug.)

Gr 1-3--From a cowering Microraptor, who "would barely be able to look a chicken in the eye," to an Argentinosaurus towering over a squirming pile of surprised-looking elephants (17, all told), Judge poses 12 prehistoric creatures with modern people or animals in compelling support of the observation that dinos came in a great range of sizes. In her lively, engaging watercolors, the extinct exemplars also display great ranges of colors and patterns in their feathers or scales, plus distinct dispositions: a quartet of shy Leaellynasaura, for instance, anxiously tries to blend in among a flock of same-sized emperor penguins, while Ankylosaurus, plainly in a bad mood, scowls as it batters whole cars out of its way with its clubbed tail. Along with identification for each dinosaur, the author adds brief but memorable verbal comparisons (Torosaurus "had a 10-foot skull and horns that grew as tall as a first grader"). She closes with a rousing double gatefold group portrait and leads to further print and web resources. Outstanding company for Steve Jenkins's Prehistoric Actual Size (Houghton Harcourt, 2005), with even more sizable storytime potential.--John Peters, Children's Literature Consultant, New York City