Dinosaur Woods is written and illustrated by George McClements. It is geared toward more primary elementary school or younger, ranging from preschool to late 1st grade. The rating I would give this book would be 3.5 out of 5 stars.
This book is about a group of woodland creatures that realize their home is going to be destroyed by developers. They brainstorm ways to protect their habitat until they think of building a life-size dinosaur to scare the construction workers away. However, when the dinosaur (operated by all the woodland creatures from the inside) trips over a media cord and they are all revealed to all the press that has gathered to see the dinosaur, they think they’re in big trouble. To their surprise, they are not in trouble, they are all just endangered or extinct, so the critters get to keep their home as a nature preserve.
Dinosaur Woods is a great way to introduce many topics about nature to younger children, such as: conservation, endangered or extinct animals, development, deforestation, and ways children can help conserve the earth. This book could be incorporated into a unit about the earth and awareness of the human effect on the environment. If this book was tied to another book about recycling, I could introduce a recycling system into my classroom for all the students to participate in. I could incorporate writing and art and have children create a profile on an animal that is extinct to present to a small group or to the class.
This book would not be effective if used with children who are much older because they would think it was too silly to really learn as much. Considering they usually know what endangered species are, this book wouldn’t be the best way to introduce a concept they already know about. There are a lot of options when it comes to how to use this book in the classroom, so teachers can be flexible when incorporating Dinosaur Woods into their lesson plans.
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