Dinosaur Babies

The appeal of this book is in the title; children are drawn to both dinosaurs and to babies. Silverman begins with facts: the bones and fossils of dinosaur babies are even rarer than those of adults and for years scientists believed they were looking at a new kind of dinosaur, not simply a younger one. The subsequent text becomes much more complicated. Different kinds of dinosaurs are listed one by one, along with the ways in which they may have cared for their young. Much of this is conditional, incorporating the phrase ``may have'' or the word ``probably'' into the opening statements. But that conditional phrasing is usually not employed in the latter part of each description, so that the information seems to be stated as fact, rather than speculation. Inouye fails to capture the elements or physical aspects of baby creatures that make them appealing; these babies are just scaled-down versions of the adults, and that skews the perspective, making both small dinosaurs and distant dinosaurs look alike. Ages 3-8. (Oct.)