One day, on a prehistoric continent, a diplodocus goes for a walk. She has just grown big enough to leave the safety of her hiding place but she is still small. As much as she is excited by all the things she sees she needs to find a herd of diplodocuses so that the bigger dinosaurs can protect her from harm.
This story will be a big hit with young fans of dinosaurs. It is great to see a book that focuses on a specific type of dinosaur because, T-Rex aside, this is quite unusual. By walking the reader through a day in the life of the diplodocus the author and illustrator allow them to gain an understanding of the dinosaur’s habitat, feeding habits and survival mechanisms.
This is both a story and an illustrated non-fiction text. It introduces the idea of carnivores and herbivores, of a pre-historic world filled with dinosaurs, and geographical vocabulary such as continent, forest and plains. It could also be used with older children to introduce the concept of adaptation – although it is not mentioned explicitly the events of the story prove that herbivores have found ways to survive on a content filled with dangerous carnivores. The illustrations also help to open discussion around this topic as we see the diplodocus using her long neck to drink without entering dangerous water and reaching for leaves from a tree.
Like all of the amazing books published by Flying Eye, the illustrations play a key part in the story and in imparting non-fiction information. I particularly loved the vast double page spreads where the illustrations went across both pages as these showed the habitat and the interactions between dinosaurs beautifully. However, the contrasting pictures on white backgrounds are wonderful too and are particularly key to telling the story of our little diplodocus protagonist. Her eyes are expressive and if the text is designed to make the reader care about her chance of survival then the emotions in her eyes ramp this up ten-fold.
I would recommend this for little dinosaur fans and it is a lovely text that could be used to introduce a number of topics or discussions with readers. It is also a book that is impossible to resit poring over because of its beautiful illustrations. This is a great introduction to graphic novel style art and the importance of both textual and visual information in imparting information. A fantastic book.
- One Day On Our Prehistoric Planet by Ella Bailey is out now from Flying Eye Books. RRP. £12.99
