reference and nonfiction

National Geographic: Dinosaurs written by Paul Barrett and illustrated by Raul Martin is a richly illustrated and fact-filled book about dinosaurs that ruled the Earth of 160 million years.

This book has stunning artwork making your imagination work overtime as you read the fascinating descriptions and there is a size chart with a human silhouette giving the reader a reality as to the size of some of these dinosaurs.

But, size is not the only thing discussed in this book, for instance, what were dinosaurs like, what did they eat, how did they interact, where were the fossil remains found, and what kind of habitat were they living in. All of there questions are answered to the best of todays painstaking research, informed imagination, and excavation by some of todays foremost dinosaur experts.

What I found very interesting is the integrative biology, how the dinosaurs not only acted within like kind or with different species, but also how the flora played and important roll in how the dinosaurs acted. Also, toward the back of the book, there is a chapter on the different theories as to why and how the dinosaurs became extinct.

This is a very good, well-illustrated and a very readable narrative. This book is well worth the money for an extremely fine reference book.

Well,this book is finally an updated overview of the prehistoric era. I would like to classify it as a modern version of "The Ultimate Dinosaur Book" which I also own,but this one is much better. On 192 pages,it is of suitable length and the format is excellent too.
It begins with a presentation of the dinosaurs with chapters like "What is A Dinosaur","The Age of Dinosaurs","Discovering Dinosaurs","How They Lived",etc.
Then,it does a good job presenting 53 of the most well-known dinosurs,like T-rex,Triceratops and Stegosaurus,as well as some lesser known such as Pelecanimimus and Therizinosaurus. The profiles are well organized,with a drawing of each species accompanied by some short fact files about name,size,time,place and classification,as well as some interesting facts about discovery,and possible behavior.
Because I am commonly interested in more scientific dino books,I bought this one for another reason than the fact,though that`s nice having too: the artwork!
There are about 30 double-page illustrations by paleoartist newcomer Raul Martin. Each picture is worth a thousand words!
Some of them,like the cover illustration,are just breathtaking.
Never I`ve seen so many awe-inspiring dinosaur images by one artist. His way to capture the majesty and beauty of this creatures is just fantastic!All of the elements - light,habitat,color,and motif - are very well combined to really fit with each other. The style sometimes reminds me of Tolkien artist John Howe. There are two main types of paintings in this book: the first type are peacefull but mysterious,and the second type are bold and dramatic,featuring terrifying encounters with allosaurs,raptors etc.
Over all,he is a really talented artist and I`ll keep looking for his future work.
Well,I hope you can excuse me for mentioning too much about the art,but for me it`s more than a fact book. It is an art book!
The text is quite easy to read,which makes it suitable for ages 11 and up,I think.
So,I can recommend this to most people interested in dinosaurs. For kids,it is a perfect information source which they`ll love. And to paleontologists: buy it for the art!Just open the book and look at the first illustration on page 18. It will blow you away!

I must confess that I bought this book solely for a few of
Raul Martins illustrations.
I think it would be ok to call it a beginnersbook for adults and why not teenagers, but not for younger children bcause the textstyle is not suited for this purpose ( I'm a teacher ).

I was really disappointed with the layout, especially the colourphotographs as many of them have extremly low resolution, blurry ,very small and too dark and also illogically placed and cropped ( similar photos can be found with better quality on the internet) :(

Many of the paintigs are clumsily placed or so that critical parts of them get obscured by the midsection or folding. I'm sure the illustrator wept.

My critisism may seem a bit harsh but I never thought National Geographic would agree to this kind of hastywork in layout matters.

Anyway....while being interested in paleoart I still think its worth having due to some paintings of Raul Martin although I grind my teeth everytime I see those bad pictures.

Shape up PLZ !