"Dragons: Legends and Lore of Dinosaurs"

Snack of Choice:

Peanut Butter and Jelly, green apple pieces, and chocolate milk is about all I'm getting these days. We've recently received a placement of two kids (Big Mac - 6 years and Small Fry - 9 months [but please don't call them that in public]) to stay with us a while. 

Story behind the story:
New Leaf Publishers (Master Books) provided this product to me a while ago, and I hesitated to review it, because I don't have the perspective of a six year old and I had strong feelings about it on my own.

Story Line:
Who DOESN'T love dragons. So obviously this would be a book for everyone. So what's the story? It's the history of Dragons from a creationist stand point. There are incredible pictures and some interactive material that make for some interesting discoveries.

The Real Story:
The Real Story? Like I said, I had this book on my shelf for a while. I read through it, and honestly was not impressed. In fact, I was disappointed. I'm assuming this book is for children, but the writing style is more like a research paper with pictures and very few sources. And they broke the cardinal rule of citations: "Never use Wikipedia as a primary source." Now, I'll admit to using Wikipedia to direct me to primary sources, but you cited it in a children's book? Really?

But then, with children, my perspective changed. The doors that open on page 18 fascinated Big Mac, and we knocked on them for hours. The envelops on page 4 all got opened (but none read). The books within the book blew his mind (again, none read), and the pictures fascinated him. That being said, the credits for the pictures include Shutterstock.com, istockphoto.com, Wikimedia Common, and Answers in Genesis USA. I'm not sure which illustrations were done by Mr. Looney and which came from prepackaged websites. 

In conclusion, while Big Mac saved this book from a very low ranking, it just had too much ground to overcome. The text was just too complex.

Check out:

The Book of Job (you might find a dragon there)

Rating:

3 out of 5 fire-breathing furballs