Wednesday 25 December 2013

The Dinotek Adventures Book 1: The Secret Dinosaur by N. S. Blackman (Children's, 7 years +, 10E/10E)

Themes: school trip to museum, worksheets, stumbling across the unexpected, sneaking around, mending things, close relationship with an uncle, engineering, making plans, talking dinosaurs, helping others,

Content: heaps of adventure, moderate to major peril, awesome end

Summary of the book from press release
When Marlin Maxton visits a museum on a school trip he discovers a forgotten room with a dusty old dinosaur display. To his astonishment and delight his interest in these old "machines" sparks them into life!

These are dinosaurs for today - life sized animals and metal machines combined. They are as awesome as their prehistoric predecessors - and best of all they befriend Marlin. Together boy and dinosaurs embark on a series of thrilling adventures - the first being to protect them from the immediate danger of hunting humans. For some, these animals are a menace, to be destroyed - and Marlin is the only protection they have against the adults who fear them. 

Nayuleska's thoughts
*breathes deeply...attempts to stay calm...* I have to say this book has a brilliantly evil end! I obviously didn't expect everything to be sorted by the end as it's a series, but how it ended made me mad in a good way. As it has a male protagonist I didn't expect to be as sucked into the story as I was. I loved Marlin's techincal/engineering tinkering, I particularly liked his solid-grounded relationship with his Uncle who provides the extra help he needs. 

And then there's the dinosaurs. They are cute! They probably would hate to be called that but oh they are sweet in how fearsome they can appear and the way they look out for their friends and do their best not to be discovered by other humans. The dinotek concept is spot on and for many reasons I'm eager for book 2!

Find out heaps more on the Dinotek website 

Suggested read
For another cool dinosaur series check out Steve Cole's Astrosaurs, including Astrosaurs: Earth Attack (Children's, 7 years +, 10E/10E) 

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