Flying Giants

October 15, 2007
Thissmall, nearly squarebook in the Dino World! series, a newadditionto the existing I Love Reading umbrella series, cleverly connects childrensfascination withdinosaurs to the fun of reading the long complex names and sounding out the syllables. Each double-page spread is devoted to one of the flying animals that lived at the time of the dinosaurs.Its name appears in bold type along with a pronunciation guide and a few, brief lines of text per page, all set against clear, handsome illustrations in bright color that show thecreature soaring over its habitat. Some fliers, contrary to the books title, were relatively small. Then there was the Quetzalcoatlus (kwet-zal-koh-AHT-lus), the largest flying animal ever found, with a wingspan longer than many buses. With adult help, children can point to the words and sound out the phonetic syllables of the names. Then they will want to read more, perhapsstarting withthe two titles suggested at books end. A brief glossary is also appended.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)