This consists of sixty-four fact filled pages with an index at the back. I thought my son Nicholas was a walking encyclopedia on Dinosaurs before he even picked up DK Guide to Dinosaurs to peruse. What this book does is bring realistic images of the Dinosaurs to life with the dinosaur replicas and colorful illustrations.

I learned early on while having DK Guide to Dinosaurs in our house for many weeks that books with plastic covers are bothersome to both my autistic kids. At six years old Matthew would keep grabbing the library edition of DK Guide to Dinosaurs to open and close it numerous times. He liked the feel of the glossy pages, while the Nicholas at seven years of age preferred the plastic to be taken off. We now look for books at the library that do not have the plastic covers.

To given an example of the chapters, some of them are as follows:

What is a Dinosaur?
Prehistoric Earth
Feet and Footprints
Ocean Cruisers
Arms and Claws
Killer Instinct
From Head to Tail
Color and Camouflage
Winning a Mate
End of an Era
DinoBirds
Reconstructing the past
Types of Dinosaurs


There are thirty chapters in all, each consisting of two pages with illustrations, graphs and descriptions. For the two-page spread on reconstructing the past, this is done in full-length, so the book must be turned another way for you to view this chapter. Nicholas likes the Feet and Footprints chapter along with the Migration and Killer Instinct. You can see the "Powerful jaws were Tyrannosaurus’s main weapon."

In the chapter, Types of Dinosaurs it is broken down into the periods of Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous. For the Heads and Skulls chapter it is mentioned, "Suchomimus had a long, narrow head like a crocodile’s, and teeth to match." Prehistoric Earth breaks down what each continent was like during the time period, for Triassic Life, "The first dinosaurs appeared in the Triassic Period, about 230 million years ago." For the Cretaceous World "The Earth began to take on its present form in the Cretaceous."

"The Dinosaurs were a group of mainly large, land-living reptiles." The illustrations through-out DK Guide to Dinosaurs explain what Dinosaurs looked like, which ones had bony spines, how many fingers they had on their hands, what they liked to eat and who was related to other creatures. "Tyrannosaurus was one of the largest flesh-eaters ever to walk on Earth, yet it had tiny arms that barely reached its mouth"

DK Guide to Dinosaurs is suited for children who are interested in learning everything you could ever want to know about Dinosaurs as well as Adults who are curious about them. If you ever had to write a book report this would be the book to purchase on the subject of Dinosaurs. We have borrowed numerous books over the course of a year on Dinosaurs and I would place this book at the top of the list in gaining knowledge and the vivid illustrations that bring this period to life through the pages of DK Guide to Dinosaurs.

Nicholas said there were many pages in this book and he read it at leisure, a few chapters at a time. You can gain insight into the social life of Dinosaurs, what their favorite food was as well as which ones were carnivores. There are illustrations of dinosaur eggs and the meteors that were thought to destroy the land of the dinosaurs. The most colorful page is the DinoBirds where you see the red and blue feathered DinoTurkey, and wonder whether the Velociraptor was a DinoBird too.

There is a lot to absorb in DK Guide to Dinosaurs but not overwhelming if you pick and choose topics of interest first and delve in slowly. Inside the index you can easily find where claws are discussed, nasal bosses, plants, asteroids, volcanoes and snakes to name a few. Dorling Kindersley acknowledged many photographs that were reproduced within DK Guide to Dinosaurs, which would make a great gift for any Dinosaur loving fantatic! For some kids just learning the names of all the Dinosaurs can be a fun challenge. This over sized book would sit nicely on a coffee table and be ideal for reading in a classroom environment one chapter a day.

Previously published on Epinions



At the present time Nicholas is engrossed in the Discovery Channel's daylong Dinosaur fest watching Dinosaur Face Off. Two books worth noting that Nicholas owns and peruses often:

Tyrannosaurus Rex Buy From Art.com

Glad Monster, Sad Monster

The Land Before Time X


Dinosaur Movies

Leap Frog Phonics