This book is very informative. There are many facts shared and the reader can learn a lot about reptiles that used to roam the Earth. This book would be suitable for children in 5th grade. The text is very mature and factual, not much fluff or story telling behind it, rather simply listing facts. It uses the scientific names for each reptile which would be very difficult for children but I believe it to be good exposure to science terms as a whole. It goes into why each reptile is named the way it is, "Opthalmosaurus gets its name from its enormous eyes." In the middle of the book it shares a story about a young girl, 12 years old, who found one of the first fossil. Although this book is informative I believe it could've been written in a manor that allowed more age groups to have access to the information being shared. The sentences are fairly long and packed with very detailed information. There are also many paragraphs on each page. This can be overwhelming to the reader. Despite the issues with content the illustrations in this book are amazing. They show the reptiles in great detail and the background covers the entire page. You are able to see them in their natural habitat. This book provides great information with supporting illustrations but I find it hard to read and stay engaged considering the length of each paragraph on the page. ( )

This colorful book offers an excellent, concise introduction to the giant marine reptiles of the Mesozoic, with attractive, full-color illustrations. The book focuses on ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs, (though placodonts and nothosaurs get some mention as well). The book describes the animals in terms of body form, habitat, diet, time frame of their existence, aspects of their reproduction, and possible reasons for their extinction. As the book notes, ichthyosaurs are known to have given birth to their young. Being published in 2007, the book predates the evidence that this same reproductive mode (viviparity) evolved in plesiosaurs and mosasaurs.

In addition to accounts of these beasts' biology, the book mentions some of the early paleontologists who studied them. Among them is Edward Cope, who mistakenly reconstructed a plesiosaur by mistaking its tail for its neck (an understandable mistake, given the enormous length of each). Another individual featured is Mary Anning, "the fossil girl", who in the early 1800s, collected a number of fossils, including an ichthyosaur now on display at the natural history museum in London.

I found the book informative and accurate, and recommend it to anyone interested in learning about the non-dinosaurian inhabitants of the Mesozoic oceans. ( )

I did not care for this book very much for a few reasons. Although the writing was organized with a table of contents at the beginning of the book, each description of reptile was very long and boring. The information was in paragraph form and didn’t have any fun facts or quick facts about the reptile on the sides of the pages. The illustrations were not bright, as the illustrator used pastel colors, many being earthy tones. For a reader who is highly interested in dinosaurs, I could see them enjoying this book. Each picture was labeled with the name of the reptile which was very long and confusing. I’m glad that there were pictures for each reptile because I think that it makes the book more enjoyable since I am a very visual person. The only part of the book that I found interesting was towards the back where there were examples as to where you could see fossils of ancient sea reptiles. There were many museums and parks throughout the United States where you could learn more about these reptiles. This information would be helpful to a child who wanted to learn more about these types of reptiles. To my knowledge, all of the information in this book is accurate as it is a nonfiction book. The book contained a few tables and figures displaying the years as to which these reptiles lived. The big idea of this book is to inform the readers about sea reptiles during the ancient times and give examples as to where they can see the fossils of these reptiles. ( )

This is a great book especially for boys of any age. Girls may like it too. It tells about Reptiles back in the dinosaur age and how they lived and their habitat.

Enormous reptiles lived at the time of dinosaurs, this book takes you on a journey to discover the different species that lived back then. ( )