José Luis Carballido

In 2016, the American Museum of Natural History added an exciting new exhibit to its dinosaur halls: a Titanosaur, the largest creature to ever walk the earth! This new picture-book, co-written by José Luis Carballido and Diego Pol, two paleontologists working at the MEF Museum in Patagonia (Argentina), details how their team excavated more than 180 Titanosaur bones from a ranch in the region, discovering the largest Titanosaur specimen yet...

Having been to see the awe-inspiring Titanosaur at the AMNH shortly after the new exhibit opened, I was quite excited when Titanosaur: Discovering the World's Largest Dinosaur came in to work! This is an outstanding work of picture-book non-fiction, with a main narrative spelling out the story of how the Titanosaur bones were discovered and then excavated, and sidebars giving more details about specific topics embedded in the story, from the importance of teamwork in the field, to the significance of teeth, in determining many things about the dinosaur in question. The artwork, done by Florencia Gigena, is accompanied by photographs from the dig. Engaging and informative, this book introduces young children to the biggest dinosaur of all time (that we currently know about, in any case). My only criticism would be with regard to the lack of any list of further reading ideas, but leaving that aside, this is an excellent non-fiction book for young would-be paleontologists.

Addendum: Given that the co-authors and illustrator of this book are Argentine, that this book was a joint publication of the MEF and the AMNH, and that a Spanish-language edition was published simultaneously with this one, I have added this book to my "Argentine children" shelf, even though the edition I read was published here in New York.… (més)