What the Dinosaurs Saw: Life on Earth Before Humans

By Author / Illustrator

Fatti Burke

Genre

Non Fiction

Age range(s)

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

ISBN

9781408898611

Format

Hardback

Published

25-06-2020

Synopsis

Watch our world come to life amid bubbling volcanoes and electrical storms in this vibrantly illustrated account of life on Earth before humans. It's time to discover What the Dinosaurs Saw.Our whole universe began as a tiny dot, smaller than this full stop. Smaller than anything you've ever seen in your life. This dot was filled with so much hot, dense energy that it burst and created the biggest event of all time - THE BIG BANG! From life's earliest beginnings 3.5 billion years ago in a violent atmosphere to the mighty dinosaurs who roamed Earth 250 million years ago, find out how life adapted, evolved and survived exploding stars, flying meteoroids and natural disasters. Find out about awesome prehistoric creatures. See how the Earth transformed into the separate continents and seas we recognise today. And what about those dinosaurs? Discover what we know about their bodies, diet, habitats and learn their family tree. With amazing facts and awe-inspiring illustrations by the award-winning Fatti Burke, What the Dinosaurs Saw will fascinate children and families with the story of our universe and life of Earth.

Reviews

What the Dinosaurs Saw: Life on Earth Before Humans is am ambitious book covering billions of years of prehistory. Beginning with the Big Bang, the book covers life on earth until early humans. Cleverly designed with a timeline running along the bottom of each page, this is good introduction to how life developed and changed over billions of years.

The author covers the scientific explanation for how the earth came to be formed and the development of early life. Using the timeline at the bottom of the page, this shows just how much time passed very visually and is a good way for discuss what billions and millions are with children. Great diagrams introduce the reader to the early creatures that lived under the seas and on the land. The author explains to children how these creatures were discovers and where, also covering the fact that the land used to be a large continent which drifted over millions of years.

The great dying gives way to the age of dinosaurs. For a book with dinosaurs in the title, fanatics might be disappointed that it has taken half the book to get to them. The different periods are each given a double page spread covering the dinosaurs alive during that time and their lives. Dinosaurs get a bit more detail with some facts about their anatomy and the eggs that they lay and a dinosaur family tree. Early mammals and birds are also covered. The book ends with the age of mammals and the evolution of humans.

There is no glossary in this book and some of the scientific language is simplified a little. While an interesting book, the title is perhaps a bit misleading. It should satisfy animal fans and prove interesting for non fiction readers, but for those who are here for the dinosaurs, there could be more.

64 pages / Ages 7+ / Reviewed by Bryony Davies, teacher