DINOSAUR TRACKS

Starting from a child’s experience of leaving footprints in sand or mud, an experienced author-illustrator pair introduces young readers to the work of ichnologists studying fossilized dinosaur tracks. In this attractive addition to the long-running Let’s Read-and-Find-Out Science series, gentle pastel illustrations accompany the relatively simple text to explain how such fossils are formed and demonstrate the differences among tracks and characteristics of three major dinosaur groups: therapods, ornithopods and sauropods. The language is appealing: dinosaurs “splooshed through gloppy mud and wet sand.” Readers are directly addressed and invited to wonder about why some kinds of tracks are more common than others. A make-your-own fossil activity is appended to the text, but there is no glossary or pronunciation guide that might also help the intended reader. (Picture book/nonfiction. 5-9)