Dino Knights: Extinction

Extinction is the third title of the Dino Knights series and is a contemporary book which has an old-fashioned feel. The soft watercolour frontcover, depicting a fierce roaring T-Rex ridden by a knight in  shining armour with a standard bearer who is a girl, bearing down on a skull and crossbones-flagged Viking-style boat, had me puzzled. This assortment of genres and clashing historical images alongside an illustrative style which reminded me of those Choose Your Own Adventure books of the 1980s made me curious and a little wary. There was a sense this was going to be a dry, hard to read, mish-mash of a story without the interactive element of that older series.

In fact, I was pleasantly surprised. The tale, about a company of knights that live alongside dinosaurs they have tamed and use as steads when they go on quests and adventures, is very readable, enjoyable, and pacy.

Henry and his fellow knights embark on a journey over the mountains into an unknown world to find trace of his long-lost parents. They meet one tribe who need help - but are they trustworthy? - and another who want to colonise the land by making the wild dinosaurs extinct.

This medieval dinosaur fantasy adventure is action-packed with intriguing characters and an interesting sidenote about how people use animals in different ways – taming and working alongside, killing but using all parts for their use, or dominating and extinguishing them.

176 pages / Reviewed by Natalie J McChrystal Plimmer, librarian

Suggested Reading Age 7+