Abby Howard has taken a pretty unique approach with "Dinosaur Empire" - part of the "Earth Before Us" series. Abby digs into the Mesozoic Era, coming up with a fabulous fact-filled story in a graphic novel format, that's instantly engaging and a really neat and original twist on the usual fairly 'dry' Dinosaur fact books we've seen in the past (of which there are so many it's sometimes difficult to know where to even start!)
Abby's story revolves around Ronnie is just a normal fifth-grader trying to pass her science class's impossible quiz on the history of dinosaurs
Abby's test scores are pretty awful until she happens upon her neighbour Ms. Lernin a retired palaeontologist.
With the assistance of Science Magic, Ronnie and Ms. Lernin travel back through time and space to experience the Mesozoic Era firsthand.
They visit three important time periods in the development of the Mesozoic Era: the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous.
Along the way, Ronnie finds herself face-to-face with real-life dinosaurs and reptiles, like stegosauruses, velociraptors, and thalattosaurs.
With the help of her neighbour's trusty knowledge of prehistoric times, she learns the differences between herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores, as well as between dinosaurs, insects, and reptiles.
This insightful and informative graphic novel uses engaging art to bring facts to life, giving kids the tools to understand the evolution of these prehistoric creatures and the important effects this era had on our world today.
It's such a great approach that we hope the series is a massive success, there's so much potential in this format to bring other historical eras into sharp focus, and having the point of contact character of Abby really helps kids to get into the core text and illustrations a lot easier (it would really be utterly perfect for reluctant readers who want to learn a fascinating and engaging new subject in a cool way).
Charlotte's best bit: Raptors! It's all about the raptors, baby!
Daddy's favourite bit: A brilliantly written and illustrated graphic novel wrapping us in a fabulous story to dish up tons of amazing facts about our favourite dinosaurs. What a cool idea!
(kindly supplied for review)
"Dinosaur Empire: Earth Before Us - Journey through the Mesozoic Era" by Abby Howard is out now, published by Abrams Books.