Dinosaur (and paleontology) books!

If you have met my daughter, it is no secret that dinosaurs are a big hit around here.  Not too long ago I was asked for a few good places to start for a study of dinos and paleontology.  My picks below range from adult, for the parent that wants some background in these topics, down to the early elementary child in love with dinosaurs.  Most skew late elementary and higher since I don't like to 'dumb down' material for my kids, especially when they show a strong interest and thrive on depth...but that's a topic for another post.


Dinosaurs books for overview and what/where/how:

• Dinosaur Lives by John Horner is a great nonfiction book for adults that gives good insight into both the fieldwork of paleontology and how paleontologists recreate how dinosaurs lived and highly recommended.  It is written for the lay reader but doesn't shy away from some of the more technical ideas.  John Horner is one of the most respected paleontologists currently working and if you are ever in Bozeman, do not miss his Museum of the Rockies.
• Eyewitness Books Dinosaur by David Lambert.   I love all the Eyewitness titles and we have a million of them, but the dinosaur one is a standout.  It is marketed to late elementary/middle school but with the beautiful pictures younger kids like them and there is plenty of information for adults.
• Dinosaur by Stephanie Stansbie is another "kid's" book, but it disguises itself as a paleontologist's notebook and the science is pretty sophisticated.  Tons of little manipulatives and envalopes and flippy bits that could get lost, but my daughter likes it so much she keeps everything where it is supossed to go. 
• There's lots of early elementary-age books on dinosaurs.  Tons.  Too many to list. Many are fine, some are crap.  The books on fossils and paleontology by Aliki are good, and Magic School Bus in the Time of Dinosaurs is probably one of  the best IMO.

Paleontology, paleontologists, and the history of fossil hunting:

• Jack Horner's book Digging Up Dinosaurs is a fun and accurate book about how fossils are really found and studied today. Appropriate for elementary through middle school.
• A good book on paleontology for the middle schooler or the student ready for a step up to more meaty information is Bones Rock!  Everything You Need to Know To Be a Paleontologist.  Lots of examples of real science and great stories.
• Look up books on Mary Anning.  There are several biographies on her life on Amazon for different age groups.  A particularly good one for elementary is Rare Treasure: Mary Anning and her Remarkable Discoveries by Don Brown.  Mary Anning was an english girl in the 1800s who discovered several species of dinosaurs.  There are lots of books for kids about her,  but this is my favorite--I love all the Don Brown biographies.  Mary Anning was fascinating--for grown-up and high school reading of a novelization of her life, Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier is wonderful.
• Lena loves learning about the T-Rex named Sue, which is the largest, most complete t-rex ever found, now displayed in a museum in Chicago.  There are tons of books about the fossil and those who found her, because it was a very contentious and litigious fossil.  Our favorites are this music cd and Sue Hendrickson's autobiography for kids, My Life as an Explorer.  (bonus, Sue Hendrickson dropped out of highschool and homeschooled herself)  A very good (but long) story of the find for adults is Tyrannosaurus Sue: The Exraordinary Saga of the Largest, Most Fought Over T. Rex Ever Found by Steve Fiffer.
• A wonderful picture book about an early paleontologist and dinosaur reconstructor is The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins.  My daughter loves the pictures in this book and comparing how our ideas of how dinosaurs look has changed over the years.

Fun books that stretch the imagination:

• Dinotopia: A Land Apart in Time by James Gurney and its sequels like Journey to Chandara (but not the novelizations that came out later, those are not good)  we read these at story time for many evenings, they are long but my kids absolutely loved a chapter each night.  It is about some 19th-century explorers who stumble upon a lost continent inhabited by intelligent dinosaurs and humans.  Gorgeous paintings on every page. 
• Uneversaurus by Professor Potts is not fiction, but it works here because it is all about how we imagine the colors of dinosaurs skin.  Fantastic fun because it shows both wild&crazy coloring and more sober information about camoflage.  Good inspiration for art lessons, too. 
• If You Are A Lover of Fossils by Byrd Baylor.  Simply beautiful, a prose-poem about fossils and the connection with the earth and our short lives.

Random stuff:

• Usborne's Dinosaur Jigsaw Atlas  is pretty cool.  Shows where different dinosaurs have been found across the world.  Dinosaurs AND geography AND puzzles!  Score!
• Not a dinosaur, but look up information on the Coelacanth.  This is a fish that was thought to have gone extinct with the dinosaurs until a few of them were found off the coast of Madagascar in the 1930s.  A great book for adults is A Fish Caught in Time by Samantha Weinberg.
• The Walking with Dinosaurs and Chased by Dinosaurs/Prehistoric Park BBC series shows are great.  My kids have watched them over and Over and OVER.  Chased by Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Park are especially fun because a modern zoologist goes back in time to capture some of those CGI dinosaurs, which are pretty well done.