Lots of dinosaur information (with attention to alliteration: awesome) and delightfully designed dinosaur drawings constructed with the initial letter of the dinosaur's name. Triceratops and T-Rex, both too important to omit, share a page. The fold-out flaps allow the massive animals to overflow the limits of the book. The vertical, upward folding, flaps are glue-ons that tend to detach themselves; this is how we acquired the book, as a library discard. However, it's an easy fix with white glue as long as you use enough wax paper to keep the pages from adhering to each other (one sheet between page 1 & 2, one between 2 & 3, and one between the flap and the page it attaches to). ( )

A brief summary:
This book goes through the entire alphabet, naming a type of dinosaur for every letter from A-Z. Underneath each dinosaur's name, there is a phonetic spelling on how to pronounce it. The pages are drawings and facts filled with alliteration that tell the reader more about what each dinosaur is like. For example, the "Deinonychus is deemed one of the deadliest dinosaurs, with dagger-like teeth, designed for digging into its doomed pray." Some pages have fold outs that show how long or tall the dinosaurs are.

My personal reaction:
This is an alphabet book that would be good for older students, around ages 8-11, as it uses something as foundational as the alphabet to teach about something that many students are interested in: dinosaurs. The book is also physically appealing as it is filled with cut outs, fold outs, vivid colors and unique fonts.

A couple of uses:
- Use this book as a mentor text for teaching students how to write their own alphabet books.
- Use this book as a mentor text for teaching students how to read and use fact boxes in informational texts.

Genre:
Alphabet book, informational

Media:
Digitally rendered, includes various text types, cut outs, and fold outs

I need a younger child to test this on. My thinking is that it's brilliant on so many levels: as an ABC, as a dino-factoid book, as a work of art for the dino illustrations built out of letters, but also for the col pages that are die-cut and fold-out.

But I don't know. Maybe that's just me being all font-geeky and maybe an actual child would find it had too little info about dinos? Sure, I mean, yes, obviously, there are some children who would feel that way. But those children are theoretical to me, and not like any of the kids I've actually known.

The coolest book for fans of this kind of thing, regardless of age.

Library copy. ( )

I decided to review Alphasaurs as well as Alphabeasties because I think there are major improvements in this book. Alphasaurs has more information about the animals depicted in font and the images are more creative and detailed. This is perfect for any dino enthusiast. There isn’t much as far as plot goes so it’s great for kids who want to explore a book alone. Also there is a ton of alliteration in this edition. Both books will inspire a creative new way to think about and interact with letters. ( )

Beautiful book ... ( )