Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs : The Definitive Pop-Up

The media could not be loaded. After enjoying all 3 of the Encyclopedia Mythologica Pop-up book series I ordered the first volume of Encyclopedia Prehistorica DINOSAURS by Sabuda and Reinhardt! This talented duo made the prehistoric encyclopedias before the myth encyclopedia books. I quickly read the book while examining the amazing pop-ups! The dino pop-ups brought back memories of my early fasination with dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History in New York City! It reminded me of both the early names of the dinosaurs while also giving me up to date information on recent dinosaur fossil discoveries! Both the old familar dinos as well as the newly discovered ones are rendored in a stylised way while having the animals shapes and anatomy fully depicted! One of the unique aspects of Sabuda's and Reinhart's work is that their pop-ups are coloured and detailed on BOTH SIDES! Most pop-ups in other books are white on the backside! I also love their addition of movement to the pop-ups that results from your opening and closing them!While I type this review I have the pop-up Ankylosaurus facing me and I love to move the pages that it's on up and down which causes the tail to move forward and back as a defence mechanism! And the 3-D armoured head pokes in and out of it's armour like the head of a tortoise! The dinosaurs are also coloured with a variety of colours and shades of green rather then the earlier monotone shades of green in earlier depictions of them. Both colour markers and paints with speckles and sponge texture were applied to the pop-ups to give them a bright textured appearence! It brings me back to making my own pop-ups in the 1980s, but they are not the intricacy of these!! The mini pop-up stegosaurs next to the large Ankylosaurus, including a stegosaurus fighting a 2 legged allosaurus like dinosaur are marvellous too! And on the right of the Ankylosaurus are 2 mini pop-ups, one showing Boneheaded domed dinos knocking their heads together and another with a pop-up Iguanodon that showed that fossil hunters can make mistakes since Dr. Gideon Mantell thought the sharp dino's thumbs were a horn on it's nose! This dinosaur used it's sharp thumbs to defend itself from carnivorus attackers! The other pages in this fasinating book have the same kind of information on different dinos like the pop-up 2 triceratops battling each other and 1 mini pop-up of duckbill dinosaurs,Corythosaur and Parasorolophus as they stand and run on their hind legs! A Brachiosaurus looms above a man and an elephant and you can see the coloured paper mechanism that raises his head and neck on the back of this pop-up! Amazing!!And I have to mention the 3-D pop-up head of the Tyrannosaurus Rex that pops up at me when I turn to these pages! The jaws not only open and close but the head moves out at you in a lifelike manner! It looks like you could feed it a hot dog!! And the pink inside of the mouth has a opening in the back of the mouth with a hanging ovula and a paper pointy tongue sticking towards you (me)! Both that and the yellow cardboard teeth make this a marvel of paper enginering! And there is a mini pop-up showing an Allosaurus pulling out red paper flesh from a dead dinosaur! Open and close this pop-up and he pulls out the flesh back and forth! Finnaly a winged Archaeopteryx, the missing link between reptiles and birds, of blue and yellow feathers seems to take flight with the movement of the pages! I found one mini pop-up on the last pages showing 2 early birds and one could not stand up because it's foot had torn a little from the page. So I cut a tiny retangular piece of oaktag white cardboard and glued it to the back of the leg, foot and page and after it dryed the bird stands up perfectly! This just shows the intricate minute details of these pop-ups and that this book should not be left in the hands of 5,6,7 or 8 year olds! But anyone who is a dinosaur fan, young and old will love this book! Highly recommended!! I've now uploaded a DINOSAURS pop-up video review I made to give a better idea of the quality of this book! Come on Amazon, you could at least increase the resolution of your video uploader! Both Youtube and UPLOAD SOCIETY have significally sharper higher resolution uploaders then you do!

This is a masterpiece of pop-up art - truly extraordinary. But one thing "popped-out" in the first few pages that strikes me as rather odd and slightly undermines the overall experience and educational value. The book cites the extinction of the dinosaurs as an unsolved mystery. But, there is pretty solid consensus that enormous basalt flows in Asia and the more famous asteroid impact near the Yucatan (evidence = Chicxulub crater) caused their demise. Now, at the end of the book they do address these issues, but under the heading of too much uncertainly imo. Still, an absolute masterpiece of a pop-up book.

Another great book! We purchased the shark one too. The grandkids were delighted and we spent hours opening and reading all the information. The next afternoon they wanted more. Such an awesome gift! Beautifully made and fun too.

Best book I could've bought my 4 year old! This dino encyclopedia is so well put together. The pop out dinosaurs are so awesome and seem sturdy! He loves it!

The media could not be loaded. Utterly GORGEOUS, modernesque dinosaurs literally leap off the pages of this beautifully and intricately composed book. I’ve never wanted to shake the hand of a children’s book author before, but I just may seek these people out to express gratitude and awe at what was accomplished here.We received this only today, but I couldn’t help but make a video for all of you who may be hesitant to spend nearly $30 (depending on current pricing) on a book — it is worth every single penny and more! The size is smaller than I expected but I didn’t read description very well after seeing the pop-ups! As you can see, the main pop-up featured dinos are surrounded by complementary artwork. Some of the sidebars even have two pages to them, just adding to my amazement of how well this book is composed. Each animal is properly labeled with correct spelling and the text gives a brief but thorough description.All of my kids were amazed by this book, and they range in age from 17 years to 20 months. The squeals elicited from my baby boys upon seeing their favorite “T-Wex” and “Bakkasaurus” was heartwarming to say the least. I had to stop them from giving the T-Rex a drink (because duh, Mom, he’s red so he’s hot) and serving the raptors their chicken nuggets, but it’s all worth the giggles and smiles!I typically write long, drawn-out reviews highlighting “pros” and “cons,” but for once, I am nearly speechless. Just look at the photos and video and you’ll see why.This is not to be handled by little ones, obviously, but the other pop-ups we have don’t hold a candle to this one. It is both educational and beautiful, and will be a book passed on for generations I’m sure. Highly, loftily, even aggressively recommended!! 😁*I feel I should add that there was no compensation, discount, or request for a review. Of the thousands of items I’ve purchased on Amazon for my babies this is, hands-down, #1 with zero bias.I hope this was helpful, even with all the gushing!

This book is amazing. The details and construction are excellent. The look on my grandson's face as he turned each page was priceless.

This is one of the nicest pop-up books I’ve ever purchased. Would recommend for an 8 yo or older, though.

My grandson’s dinosaur curiosity has turned into dinosaur knowledge. Good information and illustrations and all the dinosaurs.