In the Presence of Dinosaurs

With childlike energy and pluck, Colagrande, an award-winning New Jersey public school science teacher for 34 years and self-described ""dinosaurologist"" since the third grade, and Felder, who has received acclaim for his provocative and revolutionary oil paintings of dinosaurs, introduce readers young and old to the world of dinosaurs as never before. Scientists' new views have taught people to understand dinosaurs not as the dumb, violent and lumbering creatures that have long dominated popular imagination, but rather as lively, agile and even elegant creatures that nurtured their young and interacted in accordance with their own social norms, the authors say. Colagrande and Felder also side with those scientists who believe that dinosaurs were not cold-blooded but warm-blooded, some even with hair and fur. With a modern flair, Felder realizes the beauty and detail of various types of dinosaurs and the myriad animals and plants that lived alongside them, reinforcing the authors' main point that ""above all, [dinosaurs] were animals. And if the bones they left behind hint at anything at all, they were very special animals indeed."" With lively, accessible narrative and striking oil paintings, Colagrande and Felder deliver an imaginative and tantalizing new look at dinosaurs. (Nov.)