Tales of the Prehistoric World — Review

Thought for the Day:

“A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God.”
~ Sidney Sheldon ~

Gifts for My Writer Friends:

There are a lot of articles about first lines and first pages, but not many on endings. HERE is an article from the Nelson Literary Agency newsletter by Angie Hodapp with 7 Tips for Writing Powerful Endings.

We all want our characters to be believable. HERE Carly Schabowski has an article in Writer’s Digest that shows How to Create a Character Profile to Write Believable Characters.

Word counts seem to be pretty important to some people, while others don’t stress too much about it. No matter what kind of book you write, this might be an issue for you. HERE is a good article from Morgan Hazelwood: Writer in Progress with Tips and Tricks to Fix Word Count Issues.

We have had a bit of a break from the storms, but another big one is supposed to hit tomorrow. We shall see. I feel like my house is buttoned up enough to keep me safe and dry. I have no big trees close to my house, and my house is the highest on the street, so flooding isn’t an issue. I’ve been lucky so far with only having lost power for two hours, and if that holds, I’m good.

I don’t watch a lot of football, but I am watching the playoff games. Wow. They have been so much fun! We are Minnesota Vikings fans (I grew up in Minnesota) and San Francisco 49ers fans. The Niners did great but the Vikings, not so much. It would have been pretty exciting to see both my teams play against each other next week, but it was not to be.

I meet every week by Zoom with a bunch of people I used to teach with. We also have a book club, and read and discuss a book every month. Our old principal joined our group a couple years ago, and I love it when it’s his turn to pick the book. He always picks a good mystery. If you are looking for aa gripping adult mystery, I can recommend Desert Star by Michael Connelly. It’s terrific. I’ve been a big fan of his for years.

I love that there have been so many more non-fiction books coming out for kids than at any time in my memory. I keep running across interesting non-fiction books in the lists of review books, and my only problem is not asking for all of them! When I saw Tales of the Prehistoric World written by Kallie Moore and illustrated by Becky Thorns on the list for the Seattle Book Review, I knew I had to have it. I have never grown beyond being fascinated with the prehistoric world. I’m like a five-year-old when it comes to dinosaurs. Isn’t that a tempting cover? Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. Here is the review I wrote for the Seattle Book Review.

There is a lot more to the prehistoric world than just dinosaurs, and this book, while giving much information about dinosaurs, covers a great deal more about the fascinating time before recorded history. Each spread (more than 70) in the book covers a different topic with just enough information to whet young readers’ appetites and encourage them to do more research on their own. One such topic that will particularly interest youngsters is the one on The Kids of Charnwood Forest. This tells the story of how kids made some truly important discoveries of fossils that helped inform the scientific community about certain aspects of prehistory. But every spread will fascinate young readers with stories like Dino Death Trap, The Bone Wars, Meet the Frilly Dinosaurs, Clash of the Boneheads, Meet the Mega Shark, and so many more. The writing is conversational, but it is packed with solid information and facts. Each spread has excellent illustrations that are filled with details that support the text, magnifying the information. This is the kind of book youngsters will read right through and then start over again. A glossary and a good index finish things off. This is a winner.

I didn’t have room in my review to mention the author and illustrator, but I think both of them did a terrific job that will make for a lot of happy readers.

Please don’t forget to check for other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge’s blog HERE.