I picked up a few books at the City of Camarillo Public Library to assisted with lesson plans at:
PaulsPrehistoricPark.com School of Art, History, Language, Time Travel & other Sciences
Your Public Library is a great source of information. Ours allows you to check out 30 books at once! The Reference Librarians are very helpful and saved me a great deal of time in locating the books on my list.
The City of Camarillo Public Library has a website (www.camarillolibrary.org), which allowed me to create a list before my visit. The ability to make a search and then to narrow the results to meet my specific needs was a real time saver. Their website informs you how many of a particular book they carry, if they are checked out or not, if so the due date for return. All very helpful features.
The current building is 65,621 square feet. It includes the Friends of the Library Bookstore, Adult Literacy Center, Technology Room, Russell Fischer Business Collection, Meeting Rooms, Young Adult Area, Esper A. Petersen Foundation Study Center and The Giant Steps Café. There is a great deal of creativity in the youth area – a Pirate Ship, Columns made of Giant Books and Artwork to inspire the imagination. The Library collection has grown to over 270,000 items – books, DVD’s, music CD’s, and Audio Books on CD’s & MP3. The Library also subscribes to a variety of electronic resources which provide access to a large number of e-books, e-magazines, e-audiobooks, digital music and streaming movies.
Check out your Public Library for the services they offer.
I started with 8 books:
Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte – a Huge Book! (17” X 14”)
- Great illustrations over 170 computer-generated reconstructions based on the most recent information at publication in 2008. Steve Brusatte discusses the origin, evolution and demise of the dinosaurs. (a complete review will be provided in a future post)
Dinosaurs The Grand Tour by Keiron Pim (with field notes by Jack Horner) published 2013
- (a complete review will be provided in a future post)
Pterosaurs by Mark P. Witton published 2013
- (a complete review will be provided in a future post)
Unearthing the Dragon – The Great Feathered Dinosaur Discovery by Mark Norell published 2005
- (a complete review will be provided in a future post)
Flying Dinosaurs: How Fearsome Reptiles Became Birds by John Pickrell published 2014
- The discovery of Archaeopteryx in 1861 and Deinonychus in 1964 led to the dinosaur renaissance of the 1970’s. Dinosaurs were redefined as intelligent, speedy warm-blooded creatures that were similar to birds. In 1996 the opposition fell away with the discovery of Sinosauropteryx. A little dinosaur from China whose fossil reflects it was covered in a fuzzy down of protofeathers. John takes you to the beginning and back to the present with discoveries and theories of the bird connection, feathers – current technology to determine their color, the Chinese fossil rush, metabolism, genetics, diseases, behavior, problems with Fake Fossils & black-market trade, evolution of feathers, flight, sex, the sounds they may have made, reverse engineering a bird to get a dinosaur to the mass extinction. It’s a great ride (read)! You feel like you are along for the hunt. John even provides an A-Z listing of all the feather dinosaurs when and where they were found to the date of his publishing.
Dinosaurs Without Bones: Dinosaur Lives Revealed By Their Trace Fossils by Anthony J. Martin published 2014
- (a complete review will be provided in a future post)
My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs by Brian Switek
- Entertainingly written. Covers why some of our favorite dinosaur names have been replaced or disappeared. There is a chapter on where baby dinosaurs come from, so I hope you have had this discussion with your kids if you are getting this book for them. Some dinosaur bones changed significantly as they grew older Triceratops in particular, which led to classifications as a number of different species. Dinosaur Feathers – even their colors, theories regarding sounds they made and their final undoing are covered. Brian’s descriptions make you feel like you are at his side as he visits the various sites. A great read!
How to Build a Dinosaur: Extinction Doesn’t Have to be Forever by Jack Horner & James Gorman
- An interesting concept to reverse engineer a chicken embryo by turning on or off genes to encourage growth to resemble a dinosaur – teeth, a long tail with arms & claws instead of wings. A good job using layman’s terms to explain a complex subject. The author’s hope is the knowledge gain from such an experiment could be used to prevent spinal cord defects in humans. Apparently, this is the most common birth defect in humans. Definitely a subject that opens up all types of concerns. Unfortunately, a bit repetitive and definitely not a bedtime story for kids. Perhaps it will inspire some young geneticists. And isn’t that the goal of any writer to inspire?
I had to remind my Dinosaur, Kevin to whisper in the Library and to be extra careful when handling the books. Kevin and I have been invited to read some dinosaur adventures in January at the Library for Family Storytime in the Pirate Ship. I’m sure it will be Great Fun! We can’t wait!
Paul & Prehistoric Pals
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