Armored Ankylosaurus

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School, Brunswick, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: December 13, 2017

Review

This book was originally published in Korea by Aram Publishing. The odd thing about this book is that it is titled Ankylosaurus and while it does discuss this particular dinosaur, it also details five other dinosaurs. There is no mention at the beginning of the book or in any of the write-ups about how or even if these dinosaurs are connected, by feature, time period, or geography. The back endpapers show that all of the dinosaurs mentioned lived during the Cretaceous Period, but it's stlil strange to not have any connection mentioned. The book will interest elementary-aged readers who like dinosaurs, but it feels sloppy in its execution. The oversized pages and bright illustrations (renderings) are nice, but every one of them is chopped up by the gutter of the book. And each dinosaur that is highlighted has a phonetic key and an inset offering additional information like when it lived, where, and what its dimensions were. This feels like a book that was created to fit the need for dinosaur books at the elementary level since they are such a high-interest topic, but that could have used a little more editorial input.

Overall Book Score: fair