By Colorado Kids Advisory Board member Vero Lecocq

Title: National Geographic Prehistoric Mammals
Author: Alan Turner
Illustrator: Maurice Anton
Publisher: National Geographic Society
Number of pages: 192

Movies like “Ice Age” are awesome to watch, but how accurate is their portrayal of prehistoric animals? National Geographic gives an in-depth study of just such questions in their book, “Prehistoric Mammals.” Pages upon pages give information on a large variety of early animals, including statistics on what they looked like, what they ate, how tall they were, where they lived, what their scientific names were, whether or not they’re still around in some form today, and much more. Along with this, detailed pictures of the animals, their habitats, and their fossils cover many pages and accompany writing, charts, and diagrams of information for a much clearer comprehension and fuller enjoyment of this informative and interesting book.

The writing was, for the most part, easy-to-understand and well worded. In short, everything we’ve come to expect from the National Geographic Society. On the other hand, the book’s straightforward, factual approach to its topic left little room for other views on things that remain theoretical. Many a devout Creationist would cringe at the closed-minded declaration that all mammals evolved from reptiles that, for no blatantly apparent reason, one day decided to sprout fur and teeth and become warm-blooded. Translation: the book states explicitly that both you and the family dog come from lizards. Also, the author’s thoughts on the development of the human species could definitely be considered… interesting. A couple jumps in thought could easily be interpreted as ruptures in otherwise easy-to-follow logic. This, along with perhaps overly detailed pictures of naked humanoids, would definitely dictate that this book is best suited for older, more mature and analytical children—say, fifth graders at the very youngest. (February, 2005)