Dining With Dinosaurs: A Tasty Guide to Mesozoic Munching
Written and Illustrated by Hannah Bonner
National Geographic Kids  9/20/2016
978-1-4263-2339-3
42 pages   Ages 7—10

Junior Librry Guild Selection

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“Starving for DINOSAUR KNOWLEDGE?

“In Dining with Dinosaurs, the award-winning author of When Fish Got Feet and When Dinos Dawned serves up a full-course meal of mouthwatering Mesozoic food facts. Travel back in time for a tour of the “vores” of the dinosaur world, from mega carnivores to itty-bitty herbivores and everything in between. Join ravenous raptors as they hunt in packs and swim with Spinosaurus on the search for fish, and get ready to be amazed, surprised, and maybe even a bit grossed out when you learn what was on the prehistoric menu.

“Step up to the table to find out who ate what in the prehistoric world, and get answers to everything you always wanted to know about dinosaur dining!” [INSIDE JACKET]

Review
In the Mesozoic Era the dinosaurs have quite a few different appetites, all called “vores.” Three vores most kids understand: carnivores, herbivores, and the omnivores (us). But, are they familiar with insectivores, piscivores, sunivores, and trashivores? Hannah Bonner and her co-narrator Paleo Pal, a microraptor, explain probably more than adults want to know about these earlier diets, but not enough for kids for whom the grosser the better.
In seventeen sections—plus a couple more for the extras—our hosts dive into dinner. In general bigger dinosaurs munched on smaller dinosaurs; carnivores chase down herbivores; herbivores chase down sunivores; and sunivores chase down sunshine, air, water, and minerals. Okay, adults, you may leave. Kids, ready for the gross stuff?

Mega carnivores, like T.rex, ate big herbivores, especially the young and the sick. The ones with the most powerful jaws ate both the bone and the meat. Less powerful had to make do with just the meat. Awful, huh, no bones. There is an image of a T.rex tooth, actual size, and it is BIG! A T.rex had powerful legs, which helped it race down dinner, but I am not sure what their tiny arms did, other than wagging around while they ran (I’m guessing here).
Inside each section, you will find “Ask a Scientist,” a comic-like panel of answers from prominent scientists. For T.rex and company, the scientist is Karen Chin, a coprolite expert. What is a coprolite expert? Someone who likes to play in fossil poop. Not really, they work in fossil poop. They actually get paid for working with poop all day. By looking at fossilized poop, Ms. Chinn knows T.rex ate both bone and meat, while an Allosaurus, with its less powerful jaw, might only have eaten meat, leaving the bones behind. Each section has an Ask a Scientist, along with loads of colorful and accurate illustrations.
I really like Dining with Dinosaurs (the book, not eating with dinos, though it could be fun). Visually, the book is stunning. Notice the actual size tooth from T.rex and a smaller jagged raptor tooth. Illustrations cover the page, but in ways which make sense and best make use of the white space in the spread.To help you find the eater you want, tabs in the top corner let you flip through the pages quickly. Including the vores most kids know nothing about, makes Dining with Dinosaurs extremely inclusive and informative. Kids will love this book and learn a lot about dinosaurs, not just what and how they eat.
National Geographic Kids books rarely go wrong. They are some of the most informative and visually striking kids’ books created each year. Dining with Dinosaurs is no exception. Add in the sly humor found on some of the spreads and kids will love learning about one of their favorite creatures. Once they read Dining with Dinosaurs, kids will know it is possible for them to eat dinosaurs today, if they so please (and can convince mom to make it for dinner). Which dinosaur? Sit down with Dining with Dinosaurs to find out. Odds re good you’ve already enjoyed this primitive creature.

DINING WITH DINOSAURS. Text and illustrations copyright © 2016 by Hannah Bonner. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, National Geographic Kids, Washington, DC.

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Find Dining with Dinosaurs on Goodreads HERE.

Hannah Bonner:  https://hannahbonner.com/
Follow on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/hannahbonner.authorillustrator/
Dining with Dinosaurs Award: The Kirkus Prize 2016 Nominee, Young Readers

National Geographic Kids:  http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/
Follow on Twitter             @NGKids

National Geographic Kids is an imprint of National Geographic Society.

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Reprinted with permission from DINING WITH DINOSAURS © 2016 by Hannah Bonner, National Geographic Kids, an imprint of National Geographic Society, Illustrations © 2016 by Hannah Bonner. (Photographs © 2016 Kid Lit Reviews.)

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Copyright © 2016 by Sue Morris/Kid Lit Reviews. All Rights Reserved

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Dining with Dinosaurs: A Tasty Guide to Mesozoic Munching
Written and Illustrated by Hannah Bonner
National Geographic Kids 9/20/2016
9781426323393