Melissa Stewart
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Pinocchio Rex

and Other Tyrannosaurs

Pinocchio Rex and Other Tyrannosaurs

by Melis­sa Stewart

and Steve Brusat­te

Harper­Collins, 2017

for Ages 6–9

ISBN 978–0‑06249–093‑3 (HC)

ISBN 978–0‑06249–091‑9 (PB)

Pur­chase this book at your local inde­pen­dent book­seller or Amazon.com.

Dinosaur hunters dis­cov­ered the first T. rex in Mon­tana more than a cen­tu­ry ago. But in the last 15 years, sci­en­tists work­ing all over the world have unearthed an amaz­ing col­lec­tion of its tyran­nosaur rel­a­tives, includ­ing one with a long, pointy snout. Pale­on­tol­o­gist Steve Brusat­te, co-author of this book, helped iden­ti­fy the bones and gave the new dinosaur its nick­name — Pinoc­chio rex!

Pinoc­chio Rex and Oth­er Tyran­nosaurs offers young read­ers an engag­ing overview of the tyran­nosaur fam­i­ly and describes how its mem­bers changed over time — from the tiny Dilong to the enor­mous T. rex. The book also includes an info­graph­ic, activ­i­ty, and glos­sary, as well as a time­line and “Dr. Steve Says” side­bars that give read­ers insight into what it’s like to dig up dinosaurs.

Honors and Awards

  • Trans­lat­ed into Korean

Reviews

“Tyran­nosaurus rex may be the biggest, scari­est (and prob­a­bly the only) tyran­nosaur you can name, but this book sets out to change that. After lead­ing off with T. rex, it briefly intro­duces 10 more species of tyran­nosaurs through real­is­tic-look­ing dig­i­tal illus­tra­tions, infor­ma­tion on where and when their fos­sils were dis­cov­ered, time­lines for species, and pho­net­ic spellings of their names … An append­ed hands-on activ­i­ty chal­lenges kids to com­pare rel­a­tive tyran­nosaur sizes through chalk draw­ings on a paved play­ground. A live­ly addi­tion to the Let’s‑Read-and-Find-Out Sci­ence series.” (Book­list)

“… explains to young dino­manes how the tit­u­lar tyran­no (for­mal­ly dubbed Qianz­housaurus, nick­named for its long nose) was unearthed and recon­struct­ed before going on to intro­duce nine oth­er 21st-cen­tu­ry dis­cov­er­ies. Each comes with a gen­er­al descrip­tion, a “fact file” of basic sta­tis­tics, a col­lec­tive time­line that neat­ly groups con­tem­po­raries, and a real­is­ti­cal­ly posed and ren­dered indi­vid­ual por­trait in a nat­ur­al set­ting. Fol­low­ing a sim­ple but effec­tive activ­i­ty involv­ing chalk, a tape mea­sure, and a very large expanse of con­crete, an equal­ly cogent info­graph­ic at the end illus­trates size extremes in this pre­his­toric clan … A win­ning, and nec­es­sary, update.” (Kirkus Reviews)

Behind the Book

“This book nev­er would have hap­pened if my hus­band hadn’t urged me to read an arti­cle called “The Rise of the Tyran­nosaurs” in the May 2015 issue of Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can.

“I had no idea that T. rex’s ances­tors start­ed out small or that so many dif­fer­ent kinds of tyran­nosaurs had roamed the earth. I knew kids would love this fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ry, so I emailed my edi­tor a pro­pos­al to see if she was inter­est­ed.
“The answer came the next day. YES!

“Then I had anoth­er great idea. What if I asked the sci­en­tist who wrote the Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can arti­cle to work with me. After all, Steve Brusat­te is one of the world’s lead­ing experts on tyran­nosaurs. My edi­tor was on board, so I sent him an email.

“The answer came the next day. YES!

“Work­ing with Steve has been a joy. He’s so knowl­edge­able and so enthu­si­as­tic. The book offers an upclose look at Pinoc­chio Rex, a fas­ci­nat­ing new­ly-dis­cov­ered dinosaur, and reveals the lit­tle known his­to­ry and devel­op­ment of the entire tyran­nosaur fam­i­ly. Kids are going to love it.”

Series at a Glance

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Pinocchio Rex and Other Tyrannosaurs

by Melis­sa Stewart

and Steve Brusat­te

Harper­Collins, 2017

for Ages 6–9

ISBN 978–0‑06249–093‑3 (HC)

ISBN 978–0‑06249–091‑9 (PB)

Pur­chase this book at your local inde­pen­dent book­seller or Amazon.com.