The Dinosaurs Are Back and it’s All your Fault Edward

No this book is mainly for entertainment purposes. Students can use skills like predicting or inferring, which are language arts skills, but not any scientific processes.

Author: Wendy Hartmann & Niki Daly
Illustrator: NIki Daly
Year Published: 1996
ISBN: 0-689-81152-7

Summary

In the dawn of time dinosaurs roamed the earth and now...they're back... Or at least that's what Edward's big brother says!

Evaluation

Appropriateness: Medium
Authority: Low
Accuracy: Low
Liteary Artistry: Medium
Appearance: Low

Questions

Does the book foster development of processes?

No this book is mainly for entertainment purposes. Students can use skills like predicting or inferring, which are language arts skills, but not any scientific processes.

Does the book provide an opportunity for children to ask and answer their own questions?

Yes, in the book students can ask and answer their own questions, but mainly about plot line. There is no real space for them to ask scientific questions.

Does the book encourage children to think for themselves?

At certain points it does, but again not in a scientific manner. Students should question the actual topic of dinosaurs, and think about that, but other wise there isn’t much content for them to question.

Is the science topic addressed in ways that are appropriate to the lesson?

Not really. This book is just a fiction storybook that can be used for other subjects, like language arts. As far as using this book for a scientific lesson, I would not use it because it doesn’t have any scientific standing. I believe it would lead to more misconceptions.

Is the content based on sound scientific principles? Is it accurate?

No, this story is completely fiction. It is not accurate at all, and does not explain dinosaurs in a scientific light.

Does the book distinguish between fact and fiction?

No, the book does not distinguish between fact or fiction. It doesn’t really even explain anything scientifically accurate about dinosaurs.

Are the illustrations clear and accurate?

The illustrations are not very clear. They can be somewhat confusing, especially for a student that is used to clean and precise illustrations in a book.

Is the book written at the level of your students?

For 1^st to 2^nd grade, yes it is appropriate for that level. I would only use this in a language arts/reading lesson, or to show students what a non-accurate book about science would be. The language used and vocabulary is grade level appropriate, but the actual content in the book is mainly for entertainment purposes.

Is there a multicultural component? Is it free from stereotyping?

There is no real multicultural aspect. Stereotypes about brother-to-brother relationships are present in the book. Other than that, I didn’t see any other stereotypes present in the book.

Is the book free from gender bias?

The only characters in the book are two brothers, so females are not present in the story at all. It didn’t explicitly contain gender bias but they might have been present subtly in the book.

Does the book show the close association between science and other disciplines?

No it does not. The only scientific content in this book was the dinosaurs, but even that wasn’t scientifically accurate.

Does the book present a positive attitude toward science and technology?

Neither Science nor technology is explicitly discussed in this book. So I would say this question is not applicable to the book I choose.

Science Topics

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Maximum Suggested Grade Level