| I always thought
some of my family was strange, but I didn’t know that they
came from fish, slime, seaweed, and more.
Long before the dinosaurs, there were lots of strange animals with
strange names. I loved trying to pronounce their long names. One
of the animals was Anomalocaris, which was the first predator on
Earth. Another animal — I’m glad is not still around
— was the two-metre-long giant scorpion (the height of a pro
basketball player). Yikes!
If you like reading about strange creatures, then this book is for
you. The title got my attention right away because it was so unusual
and the creature on the cover made me want to learn more. I liked
the line drawings because they were funny.
Chapter Six, however, was too confusing. The author took a long
time to explain how the Earth changed, plus there was a mistake.
The text read: “Since I was born, North America has travelled
just over one metre (? mile).” That doesn’t make sense
because 1 mile is 1609 metres! Other than that, the book was fun
to read. Learning about strange creatures and how they changed over
time was very cool.
If I could describe this book in one word, I would say “fantastic”.
Out of a score of 10, I would give it a 9.
(Originally published
in the Sept/Oct 2006 issue of YES Mag.)
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