Sea Monsters (Prehistoric Safari (Riverstream Publishing))
Gr 3-6-Visual excitement abounds in this unusual approach to nonfiction. Facts are conveyed through a fantasy journey into prehistoric times. Readers, who are addressed in the second person ("You are about to parachute from a plane down to a secret island-an island full of huge prehistoric monsters."), encounter a multitude of fascinating creatures, described in short bursts of text augmented by text boxes of statistics and a chart on the closing pages that will make clear to students that the featured creatures existed millions of year apart and are now extinct. Characterized more by breadth than depth, the books would be only marginally useful for research. Nonetheless, their adventure-packed, imagination-encouraging framework and realistic, colorful illustrations will pique interest, and the thorough list of further readings and websites encourages additional investigation. α(c) Copyright 2011.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.--This text refers to theLibrary Bindingedition.