Books like Dinosaur Art — picked by fans

Honestly, I think I’ve read almost every book Mary Pope Osborne wrote.

When my son was little, he loved these books. One of the first chapter books he picked up at a local bookstore was Dinosaurs Before Dark. I love how her books are a cross between nonfiction and fiction. Her two main characters drew me (and my son) into the story. We read Dinosaurs Before Dark together. 

My son and I learned a lot about dinosaurs. We loved how the main characters travel in the Magic Treehouse. Dinosaurs Before Dark was the first book from this author. My son is grown up now, and we still remember reading most of her books. 

When I first read this book, it was a chapter book. I recently discovered the same book as a graphic novel. I love the illustrations. 

This is a book for all ages.

It’s a beautifully illustrated picture book about the life of Barnum Brown. He worked as a paleontologist for the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and he discovered the first documented skeleton of the Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The book is nonfiction. It focuses on his life growing up, the T-rex skeleton, and his other dinosaur discoveries. His parents named him after P.T. Barnum, the famous circus icon. His story is delightful, and what makes it more appealing are the numerous dinosaur drawings included in the book. 

I, like many kids and adults, love dinosaurs. I also like reading lively stories that teach me about dinosaurs and science. The illustrations stand out, and the story is about a real person who did amazing things. While reading the book and afterwards, I became a fan of Barnum Brown. I had no idea who… show more.

Lately, I’m hearing and reading news about recent dinosaur discoveries. It never gets old!

The author obviously loves dinosaurs and science. The writing is informative and never dull. It’s a primer for kids, ages 7 to 12, who want to learn about dinosaur history and science. I loved the author’s enthusiasm for his subjects. He works as a paleontologist and enjoys sharing information about new discoveries.

This book came out a few years ago. It shows the link between dinosaurs and birds. Prior to this, I didn’t know dinosaurs had feathers. The author presents facts about dinosaurs that are easy to understand and appreciate. He’s enthusiastic about dinosaurs, and his enthusiasm is carried throughout the book.

This book introduces children to an assortment of dinosaurs and the famous female paleontologists who discovered them. This is a book for K-2. It’s a great introduction to the world of paleontology. 

This is a book filled with easy-to-understand facts about dinosaurs, and I love G. Brian Karas’ illustrations. It provides readers with a good understanding of paleontology and may even spark some with an interest in becoming a paleontologist. 

So often we find popular level dinosaur books with the most ridiculous and inaccurate illustrations. Usually, the fault lies with the middle-man – the children’s writer or the artist. In this book, we have an instance that is, luckily, becoming more common – the academic who has the skills to communicate directly with the general audience. Dr. Witton has the experience of studying fossil animals (pterosaurs are his specialty) and in his book demonstrates how the various aspects of his work command an accurate approach to his artwork (he is a superb artist). Any speculation in his book is based on his sound observations – who would have guessed that the keratinous covering of the horns of Triceratops continued to grow throughout life and so the horny sheaths would have produced weird curly structures like those of elderly sheep?

Although this book is only 16 pages long, it tells a story that could easily have been a novel, which is that she is capable of condensing something so dense down to so few words without making it feel like anything was left out. Here we see a rather fantastical time travel tale, but one that, although at first seems quite light-hearted, ends up being one of the darkest of such tales I've ever read...and the most thought-inducing.

I loved this book and have a very difficult time reviewing it without giving too much away, but if you've got a spare thirty minutes (you know, for you slow readers), I'd highly suggest you pick this one up immediately.

Jenny Lu writes wonderful STEM children’s books.

In this story, Emma the main character, is learning about dinosaurs and fossils in school, so her class goes on a field trip to the Natural History Museum. When she learns she will be digging in the dirt to uncover fossils, she isn’t too happy, but she later discovers it can be fun.

A great educational book with facts about dinosaurs and fossils.

This is the best textbook about dinosaurs.

If you want to have all the latest information about the diversity of dinosaurs, how their bones are found and excavated, their history through time, all the key groups, how they are related to each other, and what we know about their life and times, this is the book.

This is a tried and tested textbook, now in its fourth edition, but full of anecdotes, great text, and great illustrations, many of them by the maestro, John Sibbick.

The books so far are more for adults than children, although many children show remarkable powers of reading and learning with any dinosaur book. But this one is aimed at children, and it’s comprehensive and up-to-date.

Dinosaur fans love lists and catalogues, and they want a book that has everything. This is probably the best such book, and it packs in a huge amount of material into its 300 pages.

Like Wilford’s book, this one goes through the history of palaeontology, but puts it in the context of society at the time. For example the general appreciation of the dinosaur in the last 150 years has gone from an amazing curiosity, through a symbol of something that was too clumsy to survive, through a metaphor for our own vulnerability to climate change or pollution or nuclear annihilation, to the venerable ancestor of our lovely birds . . . It can be a bit nerdy at times – overly detailed plot lines of particular films or comic books – and can be somewhat repetitive – the same examples cropping up again and again. The sweep of the work references other writers in the field – including Septhen Jay Gould, Donald F. Glut and the above John Noble Wilford – giving a great coverage of the subject