Dinosaurology: The Search for a Lost World

Gr 5–8—Paying homage to Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, and David Grann's The Lost City of Z (Doubleday, 2009), Dinosaurology mixes excellent information with an Edwardian-style story. As with other works in the series, interactive elements such as flaps, pull-outs, packets of glitter, and shiny relia add three-dimensional interest. The illustrations, both in full color and archival black and white, are appealing and informative. Presented as a journal documenting an expedition searching for a lost world in which dinosaurs still roam, the story includes maps, current scientific facts, and up-to-date particulars relating not only to the study of dinosaurs but also to the science of paleontology and the men and women who led the field in the discovery and study of those old bones. The fictional author pays tribute to Conan Doyle's work in both format and context, even slyly naming a dog after Conan Doyle's main character, and in the claim that the author appropriated the information from this journal as the basis for his Lost World. Colonel Percy H. Fawcett and his son, Jack, the primary characters in this version, were actual explorers of the Amazon, and their disappearance in the 1920s has remained an unsolved mystery. Readers interested in dinosaurs, exploration, and paleontology will enjoy the presentation of facts within the package; however, as stand-alone fiction the story is too simplistic for readers with the advanced skills necessary for comprehension. And few children would understand the many somewhat obscure references to the previous works.—Eva Elisabeth VonAncken, formerly at Trinity-Pawling School, Pawling, NY