Review: The Day the Dinosaurs Died (an I Can Read book)

The Day the Dinosaurs Died by Charlotte Lewis Brown, illustrated by Phil Wilson (HarperCollins, 2006)

When a giant fireball streaks down from the sky and smashes into the earth, even the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex is no match for its explosive power. Pteranodons go hurtling through the air, scorched by the explosion. Fire and flood down a Triceratops herd, and those dinosaurs that escape the destruction find themselves without food.

In this fictionalized account, based on actual fossils, Charlotte Lewis Brown tells a dramatic story of the extraordinary day in which an asteroid crashed into the earth. While it’s probable that dinosaurs were already in decline at the time, and that some may have survived the catastrophe but were out-competed by other species, the author chooses to focus on the brief moment in time when something close to 70% of species on earth, including most of the dinosaurs, may have been wiped out by a sudden global catastrophe. While there are alternative hypotheses to explain the K-T boundary (fossil traces in rocks that show a sudden global change, and that bear traces of soot and tell-tale chemicals), the most widely accepted one at present is the asteroid hypothesis.

This level 2 easy-to-read book could be just the thing for reluctant readers who need a gripping tale to keep them engaged. Dinosaurs have wide appeal for children, and this book has the added action-movie appeal of fire and explosions.

The book could also be a great tool for discussing scientific evidence. Why do paleontologists think that an asteroid struck the earth 60 million years ago? What do they use as evidence? How do they build scientfic theories (evidence-based explanations for natural phenomena) from data?