LIFESIZE DINOSAURS

A rare opportunity to go nose to
nose with Diplodocus, measure a human shoe against the fossil footprint
of Allosaurus, and like dino-encounters.

Following her up-close survey of
modern creatures in Lifesize (2018), Henn goes prehistoric in the same 1-foot-square
format. She alternates big, broadly brushed images of fossil or fleshed-out
body parts (or a gathering of eggs on one spread) with pulled-back views of
each creature in a broader setting accompanied by breathless commentary: “To be
this completely GINORMOUS Diplodocus had to eat A LOT.” Said commentary
is light on specific facts (though she does properly note that Pteranodon
and Albertonectes were reptiles but not true dinosaurs), but she closes
with a slightly more informative minigallery. A particularly sharp-looking Utahraptor
claw (“OUCH!”) and multiple appearances or mentions of Allosaurus lead
up to a climactic gander at the toothy grin of Tyrannosaurus rex—placed
on a double gatefold and therefore a full 4 feet long. “Say cheese!” Although
several of the creatures are depicted with feathers, Henn’s palette mostly hews
to mud and moss colors, so despite the stunning close-up views, the book has an
overall subdued look.

The sharply defined realism of Steve
Jenkins’ Prehistoric Actual Size (2005) may be absent, but young
dinophiles will still roar. (Informational picture book. 5-9)