Prehistoric Beasts

Engagingly written, bursting with facts and stunning foldout creatures, PREHISTORIC BEASTS is a delight. Perfect reading for inquisitive minds, whether you're an aspiring palaeontologist, a nature nut or simply curious about our ancient past!

-- Rebecca Wragg Sykes * Archaeologist and author of Kindred *
This fun book about dinosaurs and other ancient beasts is written by a leading authority in the field, a scientist who devotes every waking hour to digging up giant bones and when he's not doing that he is studying how they lived and how they can be compared with living animals. -- Professor Michael Benton, author of The Dinosaurs Rediscovered * Professor Michael Benton, author of The Dinosaurs Rediscovered *

Prehistoric Beasts introduces the typically mega-sized prehistoric ancestors or relatives of animals that exist today. Dr Dean Lomax traces seven animals - the elephant, the shark, the sloth, the dragonfly, the alligator, the penguin, and the whale - back nearly 400 million years ago.

The book design is brilliant. Each double spread introduces one of the seven animals, describing the animal and their habitat with a full colour illustration on one page. On the other page is a fuller explanation of the different species within the animal's family, conveying the extent of and variety of these creatures and how they survive. There are some surprising facts, such as the elephants' closet living relatives being sirenians or 'sea cows' and sloths only climb down from trees once a week to poo. The second page is also a fold out, finishing with a clue and a question. Can the reader guess the prehistoric ancestor or relative under the flap? When you open the flap ...

... out pops the prehistoric beast. Centre of the fold is Mike Love's fantastically engineered pop-up of the animal, sized, so that the reader literally comes face to face with these prehistoric animals in a variety of action poses - for example the ancient alligator with its teeth around the throat of its prey or the megalodon breaking the surface of the water, scattering dolphins - adding an incredible dynamic to the book. The text presents a further description of each animal and their habitat as well as evidence shown in the fossil record or in the case of the elephant's relatives, remains found in the permafrost. The book is a gold mine of unbelievable facts, including giant penguins taller than humans and giant ants the size of hummingbirds.

Sadly, there are only seven animals, and whilst Dr Dean Lomax and Mike Love have chosen the ones that will appeal and fascinate children as well as broaden their interest in natural history, hopefully there will be further books. For me pop-out engineering brings a phenomenal WOW factor to any book but is especially suited to the subject of natural history.

Prehistoric Beasts can only be described as a three-dimensional experience, bringing to life ancient ancestors and relics of relatives from a distant past.

-- Simon Barrett * Armadillo *
Short, digestible, attractive and stimulating. All the information here is presented in language a child aged eight to ten will find appropriate and understandable, and in short, digestible sections. There is a lot for a child and adult, sitting together, to digest and elaborate upon. The pop-ups are sturdy and will withstand a lot of yanking about by enthusiastic young hands! * Laurence Inman, School Reading List *
Packed with information in an accessible and engaging format, children aged 5+ won't be able to get enough of this spectacular hardback. Behold the awe and wonder as children peer behind the flaps and unfurl a 3D prehistoric horned Elephant, a toothy shark leaping from the page, a tree-hugging sloth, a dragonfly with flapping wings, a bone-crunching alligator mid-bite and Waddle, an expert penguin related fishcatcher. * Tom Tolkien, School Reading List *
This is not a dinosaur book. Instead its pop-up pages offer the fresh meat of less-familiar prehistoric creatures, which will be devoured by little dinosaur experts who know everything there is to know about T Rex and triceratops and are hungry for something new. * Saturday Tim