Book Review - Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne/Read-a-Thon Recap

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Back when I worked in the bookstore people would ask for this book left and right. It was required reading for lots of schools in the area and on top of that kids just love the series. They would actually recommend it to their friends and once they read one they would just devour all the rest of them. Even though they are pretty short I never picked one up when I was there but now with the read-a-thon I checked the first one in the series out of the library to fill my reading time.

"With an entertaining blend of fact, farce, and fantasy, Osborne tells the story of Jack and his sister, Annie, who take a trip in a magic tree house and land in a time 65 million years ago. They find dinosaurs and volcanoes and adventure. Veteran storyteller Osborne builds the power of reading into the story: it's the books in the tree house that give the kids the magic to travel and see far, far away."--Booklist.

This book was an easy read due to it's length and pageturnability. The story makes sense as much as a time travel story can and the characters are believably brother and sister they don't overly love or hate each other which is something that can be annoying in children's stories. I totally see how kids can get into these stories, they travel through time make friends with some dinosaurs, get in a tangle with some others and are back home before dark.

I greatly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more in the future, maybe I will pick up a bunch of them next time to boost my book total numbers for the next read-a-thon.

Currently "Reading":
Magazine - November issue of Good Housekeeping
Book - A Wife's Guide to In-laws: How to Gain Your Husband's Loyalty Without Killing His Parents by Jenna D. Barry
Audio - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance - Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith