Bill Nye the Science Guy's Great Big Dinosaur Dig
Grade 5-6-The Science Guy returns with a chatty, informative book on an ever-popular subject. Rather than homing in on individual species, the conversational text discusses the formation of fossils and their subsequent retrieval, bird evolution, and Pangaea, among other topics. Each brief chapter includes an activity that ranges from painting camouflage balloons to chipping a "fossil" chicken bone from a plaster of paris matrix. Colorful illustrations, diagrams, and data boxes abound, many accompanied by photos of Nye clad in his signature blue lab coat or casual field shirt. The "Ancient Dinosaur Index" is not, alas, an index to the content of the text but rather a listing of all of the dinosaurs mentioned in the book, shown in the illustrations, or cited in the time line that trundles along the bottom of the pages. This "index" includes name, pronunciation and meaning of name, size, and whether the critter was a saurischian or an ornithischian. With a dozen activities/experiments for hands-on science, this book will attract dinophiles and classroom teachers alike. It's more tightly focused than Bill Nye the Science Guy's Big Blue Ocean (Hyperion, 1999).Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NYCopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.