Raptor Pack: Step Into Reading 5

my great nephew loves dinosaurs , this was the perfect gift for him

Unnecessary religious references in some of these Step books. 'A family that preys together stays together'. Not impressed.

O.K.- wow, where has Bob Bakker been all my life? Well, at least for the last 1.5 years since my daughter became interested in dinosaurs. Raptor Pack is a fabulous chapter book for grade school readers, but also for preschoolers who love dinos, like my 3.5 year old. The book tells the story of a deinonychus pack hunting in the uncertain wild world of the Cretaceous Period, then explains how Bakker A REAL PALEONTOLOGIST was on the Montana dig in the 1960s that discovered the first 'terrible claw' of this new raptor. He explains its discovery, study and the reconstruction of this animals appearance, hunting and hiding behavior and life. So it's not yet another dino book with a dumb-down story. This book challenges young dino-lovers with engaging information - it has a compelling narrative, an explanation of scientific methodology and is illustrated with descriptive, dynamic scenes from the recreated dinosaurs' life.Bakker is a great story-teller and enlivens his stories with just the right amount of fun word play (he calls herbivores 'veggie-saurs' - totally funny for my 3.5 year old) and plot (the raptors climb a tree to sleep and then spit up on the enormous carnivore trying to hunt them). Though my 3.5 year old is not reading on her own yet, she loves listening to the story in the book, and hearing about the 'terrible claw' - and seeing how it compares to an eagle claw (this is a visual and written comparison in the book - again, one of Bakker's talents - making the info relevant to people of all ages) and how it was used by Deinonychus. My daughter was so inspired by Bakker's story, she has been telling everyone that she wants to be a "Stegosaur Paleontologist" (her favorite dinosaur). I told her she better pack her bags for Montana then - and not discount any OTHER non-Stegosaur fossils she finds (!)Bakker has written other dinosaur books, whose delivery we are eagerly awaiting. And you can't beat the price ($4!)

My five year old daughter loves to read this book with me. We checked it out from the library and she liked it so much that we bought our own copy. My 7 year old son also likes this book. I thought parts of it might gross her out (this is a book about a meat-eating dinosaur), but she finds it really interesting. The drawings are realistic, but not gory or over-the-top. It is a very informative and a good length, without being boring or too technical. The book provides a balanced mix of a "day in the life of a raptor" narrative and archealogical technique, which I think keeps the book going at a good pace and keeps both of my children's interest. They ask good questions and actually like to laugh about the "gross parts." (ex. Raptors burp up undigested bones like owls do! Ewww, dinosaurs burp! Hahahaha.)

As you may remember, day-in-the-life dino books in general & Bakker's "Step-into-Reading" books in particular are my favorite non-Natural History of Dinos books ( amazon.com/review/R16K64LXYBME69/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ). As you may have noticed, dromaeosaurs are my favorite dinos ( amazon.com/review/R3VAJM4MMKUN2D/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ), especially eudromaeosaurs like Deinonychus. For those reasons & Skrepnick's illustrations (See the Parker quote), "Raptor Pack" is 1 of my favorite non-NHD books. The only reason I didn't officially review it before is because Science-minded's review is so perfect that I can't possibly top it ( amazon.com/review/R304EAF2WZLH1I/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8 ). Reviewing Naish's "Dinopedia: A Brief Compendium of Dinosaur Lore" made me decide to officially review RP now: For 1, it's my other favorite non-NHD book; For another, see the Naish quote, which is a near-perfect summation of what we've learned about Deinonychus since RP.Quoting Parker (Google "Michael Skrepnick - Lines and Colors"): "Working in graphite or pen and ink for monochromatic works and in acrylic for paintings, Skrepnick portrays prehistoric animals with a clear, sharp and detailed style that reinforces their connection with the real world and recognizable environments and makes their strangeness even more palpable. His dinosaurs are bathed in sunlight, strongly modeled and connected to the ground and the world around them."Quoting Naish (I added the brackets for more info): "Ostrom’s views on the behavior and lifestyle of this dinosaur have also undergone revision. Sickle-shaped claws aren’t, it turns out, built for slicing or slashing at giant animals, but for gripping or pinning small ones[...E.g. See Fowler et al. 2011...]Ostrom’s view that Deinonychus was a pack-hunter has been the source of considerable debate. Some experts have outright stated that group hunting wasn’t likely for these animals (it’s more of a mammalian habit than a reptilian one, so the argument goes), nor is it well supported by geological data, since the individuals Ostrom regarded as members of a social group more likely came together by accident (they were washed together by floodwater, say). But none of this appears exactly right; social behavior is reasonably well supported in these animals and can’t be easily explained away[...E.g. See Maxwell & Ostrom 1995...]Deinonychus isn’t the only dromaeosaurid where several individuals have been discovered in association[...E.g. See Li et al. 2007...]and the diversity of group-hunting strategies present in modern lizards and birds shows that cooperation and group living are far from “mammal-only” behaviors[...E.g. See Ellis et al. 1993...]It’s plausible that Deinonychus sometimes hunted alone, but it’s also likely that individuals stalked and foraged in bands, cooperated in the flushing and pursuing of prey like small ornithischians, and slept and nested in groups."