Mini Dinosaurs Apatosaurus Dinosaur Book Reviewed

By | January 5th, 2013|Book Reviews, Educational Activities, Everything Dinosaur Products, Product Reviews, Teaching|0 Comments

Lift the Book Flap and Find an Apatosaurus 

Finding a book that is tactile, just the right size for small hands to hold and helps young children with their reading can be a challenge, but the Mini Dinosaurs – Apatosaurus book fits the bill nicely.  In addition, there is a surprising amount of factual information about the dinosaur known as Apatosaurus within this little hardback book.

Dinosaur Book

Assisting children with their reading skills is an important task.  It can help young children prepare for more formal schooling when they enter the education system and even very young children can soon learn to recognise the letters of the alphabet and the sounds that these letters form, all part of helping to teach reading using phonetics and other cognitive processes.  Starting them off early can help a child to develop a lifelong appreciation of books and the enjoyment of reading.

The Mini Dinosaurs Apatosaurus Dinosaur Book

Mini Dinosaurs Apatosaurus explains about the Dinosaur name change.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Choosing appropriate reading matter is important.  A book about a dinosaur, one that is designed with young readers in mind, is especially helpful, many children at around three years of age are beginning to show an interest in dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.  Reading about dinosaurs will help to engage the child and will help them to develop through their own imaginative, creative play.

Mini Dinosaurs Apatosaurus Book

The Mini Dinosaurs Apatosaurus book is a tough, hardback so it is ideal for use with young children from three years of age.  Both the front and back covers are laminated and can be wiped clean with a damp cloth, very helpful of the book designers to do this as this avoids damage to the book by sticky fingers.  On the front of the book is a bright green Apatosaurus and the book cover explains that this dinosaur was formerly called Brontosaurus.

Why a change in a dinosaur’s name?  The explanation is simple, a dinosaur was named from some fossil bones found in the state of Colorado in the late 1870s.  This dinosaur was called Apatosaurus (the name means “deceptive lizard”).  Brontosaurus was named from fossils found in the same part of the United States a couple of years later.  However, a subsequent re-examination of the fossils led scientists to conclude that their discoveries did not represent two different genera, but just one.  Since Apatosaurus was named first, under the laws laid down for the scientific naming of organisms the Apatosaurus name took precedence.  The book therefore tells a story about Apatosaurus, the dinosaur that was formerly known as Brontosaurus.

The book contains simple sentences laid out in a large, easy to follow font.  All the text is in black and bold to help young children follow the letters more easily.  This miniature dinosaur books poses questions for the child and the adult reader to explore, for instance, Why did Apatosaurus have a long neck?  Why did Apatosaurus have such thick legs?  If you lift up the clever flap on the picture of this dinosaur coinciding with the question page, the answer is revealed.  The answers are given in bold, easy to read text so that the child may read the answers.  For the grown-up, on the flap itself there is some helpful extra dinosaur information provided so that the adult can more fully explain the answer given.

To view Everything Dinosaur’s range of dinosaur themed learning materials: Dinosaur Crafts and Educational Toys.

By unfolding the card inserts to be found at the back of this little book, a picture of large, green, friendly-looking Apatosaurus can be created.  This is a cleverly designed little book about dinosaurs that will help young children with their reading skills as well as delighting them with the dinosaur information that it contains.  An excellent first dinosaur book for a very young, budding palaeontologist.

Please Note

Brontosaurus is now accepted as a valid genus following a taxonomic revision of the diplodocids.