Greetings my good sir or madam or otherwise! Hark, I come bearing joyful tidings! Have you heard the good news? Although this copy comes from 1994, The News About Dinosaurs was originally wirtten as early as 1989 by Patricia Lauber. Patricia Lauber (1924-2010) was a prolific American science writer for children, and this book is all about her excitement for the Dinosaur Renaissance. As the title suggests, it is a book relaying all the new insights that had been coming…
Hej allesammen! It’s hard to find proper illustrated mass-appeal dinosaur books from before the 1970s, when Zdeněk Burian brought Life Before Man into every European home. It’s always cause for minor celebration whenever something older than that shows up that isn’t Knight or Zallinger. So imagine my delight when I rediscovered this book in my very own archives when I moved house last year. Oh yes, I remember this one. This very, very old one. How old? It dates from…
Remember the St Michael dinosaur book, published in 1978 and notably featuring quite handsomely painted illustrations by Bernard Robinson? Discovering Dinosaurs, published a decade later by Cliveden Press, was illustrated by someone who evidently had a very well-thumbed copy of the earlier tome. I say ‘someone’, because neither the illustrator nor author here are credited, which is rather surprising. Then again, given the levels of Utter Shamelessness on show here, perhaps it’s because they’d rather their names weren’t attached to this…
Due to illness, we missed an episode of the podcast, but we are back on track with the episode recorded in April! This time, Dr. Mark Witton takes us back to what might be the first large-scale expression of palaeoart in 3D: The dinosaurs at the Geological Court at Crystal Palace Park! Tying in with his new book with Ellinor Michel, he tells us all about their history, their surprising influence and their uncertain future. Also, a lot of unashamed…
So, you might imagine we’ve all been spoiled a bit lately, what with Prehistoric Planet and all. It’s easy to develop high expectations, and to expect everything to be subject to the same sublime standards of visual quality and scientific accuracy. Lest we get too comfortable, I think it prudent to take a stroll among some good old fashioned ugly Chinese dinosaur animatronics. It’s good to be reminded that dinosaurs in public spaces can still be rubbish, too. Take it…
George Solonevich is one my favorite artists covered at LITC. His work stands out during an era of paleoart that saw so many artists copying Knight and Burian. I’ve long planned to do a “golden oldie” post on him, and today I’m finally marking that off the to-do list. I initially wrote a brief post about him in 2010, which Marc followed up in more fleshed-out form a few years later (part one and two). The bulk of today’s post…
I always enjoy receiving books from overseas that date to my childhood, but were never released in the UK (or if they were, were really well hidden) – there’s a special fascination in seeing what contemporary, for example, American kids were reading while I was devouring The Ultimate Dinosaur Book and Dinosaurs! magazine (er, the UK version). Graveyards of the Dinosaurs was (very kindly) sent to me from the US by Herman Diaz – thanks once again, Herman. It features a…
Slightly late but sure as rain comes the fourteenth episode of the world-famous Chasmosaurs Podcast! Natee, Marc and Niels dive into the Zallinger dynasty, as after covering Rudolph’s famous mural, this time we shine a light on his son Peter Zallinger. Natee interviews Greer Stothers, who has a book coming out called Kaleidoscope of Dinosaurs, a great title for a book. We also have a brief interview with Tom van der Linden, who may just have discovered a new dinosaur!…
Here’s another book found through sheer serendipity while browsing charity shops with a friend – Prehistoric World, written by Richard Moody and published by Hamlyn in 1980. That means it was published a few years after another Moody-authored book that I reviewed in 2019 – A natural history of Dinosaurs – and it recycles a fair few illustrations from said earlier tome. No matter – there’s plenty of unique material here to make it worthy blog fodder, not least because…
Time for another round of The Big Golden Book of Dinosaurs. No, not that one – the one from 1988, written by Mary Elting and illustrated by Christopher Santoro. As an aside, I didn’t say too much about Santoro last time, and I probably should have. He’s an accomplished and much-lauded illustrator of children’s books with (as of today) over 30 years’ experience (as per a number of near-identical bios that appear on various publishers’ websites, like HarperCollins). He’s not…
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Chasmosaurus belli silhouette in custom bulleted list by Scott D. Sampson, Mark A. Loewen, Andrew A. Farke, Eric M. Roberts, Catherine A. Forster, Joshua A. Smith, and Alan L. Titus, CC BY-SA 3.0. Sourced from PhyloPic.