This is a great non-fiction children's book, that includes detailed illustrations of dinosaurs. This book contains a lot of interesting facts that can be both educational and enjoyable to young readers. Each page contains different information that really gets the reader invested. There is a lot of text, however it is broken down into tinier blocks that can make the story shorter if used for a read aloud! Children are able to explore the evolution of dinosaurs with cute and fun pictures. I would recommend this book for an amusing read aloud to an age range of four to eight year olds! ( )

It's another amusing and informative question-and-answer picture-book from Slovenian children's author Lila Prap, whose Why? profiled fourteen different species of animal, while her Doggy Whys? confined itself (obviously) to dogs. As its title would suggest, this one - originally published as Dinozavri?! - focuses on the world of dinosaurs! Using the conceit of chickens learning about their mighty ancestors - birds being descended from dinosaurs - Prap once again answers a series of questions with both factual and fun responses. The fun is provided by the chickens, who supply nonsense answers, and refer to the dinosaurs as "great-great-great-great uncles" (among other things), while the facts are supplied in brief textual answers to each question, as well as in a profile of a dinosaur species whose characteristics match that particular question.

The result is a book that is both educational and entertaining - apparently a hallmark of Lila Prap's work! - and that will be embraced by all young dinosaur lovers. I understand that Prap's work is so popular in Japan, that they are making a series of cartoons from her books. This is something I can readily believe, as the artwork here has a distinctive and charming sensibility of its own, with vivid colors and stylized forms that I can see translating well in an animated work. The text itself is so amusing - those chickens and their insouciant humor! - that young reader/listeners will swallow their quota of information without so much as a blink. Dinosaurs (as everyone knows) are cool, and chickens are hilarious! ( )

Informative and delightful! ( )

Dinosaurs?! written and illustrated by Lila Prap (2010) is such a cool book about dinosaurs! She teaches us about dinosaurs in an interesting way by having a conversation with the reader instead of just telling us. There is a family of modern day chickens who ask questions and make comments about where dinosaurs came from, and what the features of dinosaurs are for, and are they really the ancestors of chickens. I really appreciate the super creative and cute way Prap teaches us about dinosaurs.

In the classroom I would use this to study dinosaurs, as well as to show kids a different way to present information using large, colorful illustrations that inspire a dialogue between the reader and author. Grades K-5. ( )

IBBY presentation