Dino Safari

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - North Yarmouth Academy, Yarmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: February 7, 2017

Review

The LEGO books have high appeal for young readers. The pages are very busy, with a mix of LEGO figures, facts, tips about building, and photographs. The photographs are beautiful and the "build it" feature is kind of lame and feels like a tacked-on feature that provides a connection to LEGO. This book should mention in the very FIRST SENTENCE that there were NO HUMANS in the time of the dinosaurs. There is a strange implication on page 4 that dinosaur explorers existed and this isn't corrected until page 7 and then only in a fact bubble not in the main narrative. Pronunciations would have been helpful in the book rather then at the end. The presence of a sticker sheet is never an easy one to deal with in a library book. So while this type of book will appeal to your LEGO/dino lovers, it is not going to be an easy book to navigate for all emerging readers. That being said, any level reader will enjoy the photographs and the facts that are included, and it is worth having these types of titles because it might engage a reader who is drawn to the LEGO logo, but then stays for the words, learning something due to that intersection.

Overall Book Score: good