  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 06/01/2017 Gr 4–6—An in-depth look at dinosaurs, geography, and evolution, presented through an appealing framing device. After Ronnie fails her dinosaur quiz, she travels back in time with her neighbor Miss Lernin, a paleontologist, for a firsthand lesson. The two visit four different time periods: the late Triassic, the late Jurassic, the "early-ish, almost middle Cretaceous," and the late Cretaceous. Miss Lernin educates Ronnie on the geography, climate, vegetation, and animal life of each era. Howard details characteristics of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, covers similarities and differences among different species, and offers information on evolution, convergent evolution, and mutations. Names of species are in bold print and accompanied by a phonetic pronunciation. The simple, cartoon-style color illustrations are detailed enough to indicate differences among species. The conversation between Miss Lernin and Ronnie is fairly easy to follow, but the inclusion of a calendar between different eras to indicate the passing of time may be confusing, as each "day" represents millions of years. The last few pages include "Cool Animals from Other Times" and a drawing of a scientific family tree. VERDICT A great addition to graphic novel or dinosaur collections.—Tamara Saarinen, Pierce County Library, WA - Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 07/01/2017 When Ronnie flunks what’s supposed to be an easy quiz about dinosaurs, she’s understandably dejected. How is she supposed to learn everything about dinosaurs before her retake test tomorrow? Enter her “eccentric” (“Means she’s a weirdo”) neighbor, Miss Lernin, a retired paleontologist who’s happy to educate Ronnie. But Miss Lernin takes a page out of Ms. Frizzle’s book when it comes to teaching methods, and she whisks Ronnie back in time to the Mesozoic Era (“Science Magic”). One quick lesson on evolution later, the pair is off, traveling through the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods to explore the way dinosaurs and other creatures lived and evolved. This is more a creative presentation of facts than a true adventure story, although there are plenty of tongue-in-cheek jokes buried in the energetic, sometimes frenzied illustrations, which pack in as many dinosaurs and diagrams as possible as well as cartoonish figures with wide-eyed gazes. It’s an effective way of putting the vast history of the world before humans in perspective; dinosaur nuts (and there are many) will eat it up. - Copyright 2017 Booklist. Loading...
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