Truth or Poop: Dangerous Dinosaurs - James Warwood - ★★★★

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AUTHOR-ILLUSTRATOR: James Warwood

GENRE: Children's Nonfiction, Humour
RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: Will work nicely for little dinophiles.

The latest in the Truth or Poop series, this book contains 50 “facts” about dinosaurs. It is up to you to decide whether the fact is ‘truth’ or ‘poop’. Once you have your answer ready, turn the page to discover if you got it right.

Each dino fact is accompanied by an illustration sketched by the author himself. These are quite funny! The answer page provides not just the answer but also a detailed explanation, which is written in a humorous rather than boring way. What I like is how the author manages to make the factual details conversational rather than encyclopaedic, thereby making the whole experience a relaxed and interesting leaning time.

I’ve read all the Truth or Poop books so far (my kids are big fans of this series), but let me confess, this title was my least favourite one. The reason for that is quite simple: I am not a dinosaur geek. So while I was amazed at the variety of information in the book (Jurassic Park got velociraptors so wrong!!!), after a point, I felt saturated. I have no doubt that dino maniacs will enjoy this book a lot more than I did. Questions like ‘Dino Death Matches’ are sure to work better for them, and there are quite a few Dino Death Matches herein!

That doesn’t mean I didn’t like the book. Far from it! I loved reading about the goof-ups made by palaeontologists while putting together dinosaur bones. It was also hilarious to learn about a place called ‘Dinosaur’ in Colorado! (USA, you always surprise me with your quirky place names!!!) Another fun element was the facts related to the accuracy of the dinosaur depiction in the Jurassic Park series. The book also covered details about the dino extinction and fossil formation in the precise manner.

As always, the book will work better if you are reading it along with your family and treat it as a kind of group game. It’s fun to see who is winning and who has the most “poops”. 😛

Recommended to dino lovers aged 8+.

This book is available in a ‘Special Edition as well’, which contains ten bonus dino facts at no extra price. This edition is available only from the author’s website. Ordering this edition would be a nice way of supporting an indie author and a small printer.

4 stars. (I’ve no doubt that this rating would have been higher had I liked dinosaurs more.)

The book is free for KU subscribers.

My thanks to author James Warwood for providing me with a complimentary copy of “Truth or Poop? Dangerous Dinosaurs”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

Here are my reviews for the other four books of the series:




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