Did Dinosaurs Have Feathers?

Let's-Read-and-Find-Out Science, Stage 2

by Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld, Lucia Washburn (Illustrator)

Read and find out about the link between dinosaurs and birds in this colorfully illustrated nonfiction picture book. Birds have feathers, but did you know some dinosaurs did too? Recent fossils have shown that as long as 145 million years ago, some dinosaurs had feathers, just as birds do. The birds you see outside your window are relatives of these ancient creatures.  This clear and appealing science book for early elementary age kids, both at home and in the classroom, explores the link between dinosaurs and birds and examines how flight evolved. From the team that created the bestselling Dinosaur Babies . This is a Level 2 Let's-Read-and-Find-Out, which means the book explores more challenging concepts for children in the primary grades. The 100+ titles in this leading nonfiction series Top 10 reasons to love Books in this series support the Common Core Learning Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) standards. Let's-Read-and-Find-Out is the winner of the American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Science Books & Films Prize for Outstanding Science Series.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Childrens, Prehistory, Palaeontology, Picture Books

40 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld is the award-winning author of more than sixty books for children, including DINOSAUR TRACKS, "a great choice for even the most discriminating dinophiles" (School Library Journal); DID DINOSAURS HAVE FEATHERS?, a Children's Book of the Month Club selection, described as "fascinating" by Kirkus Reviews; and DINOSAURS BIG AND SMALL, a 2003 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Best Book Award winner.

When she's not reading, researching, writing, or editing, Kathleen loves to spend her free time exploring, doing fieldwork, and preparing fossils for her local natural history museums.

Reviews

[Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fun non-fiction book about dinosaurs was part story time at our house for over a month. We read 6-10 pages a night before moving on to more story oriented books. At first the kids weren't all that interested, but over time they warmed up to the dinosaur fun facts offered in this book. A lot has been discovered since I last studied the dinosaurs, so it was fun to me to learn about dinosaurs I had never hear of. I definitely recommend this for your dinosaur enthusiasts who enjoy well organized fact books.

[Patricia Stephens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informational and a very interesting perspective on dinosaurs. When one thinks of dinosaurs, they never think about feathers. This book shows and explains that dinosaurs did have feathers millions of years ago, and that is probably how birds evolved. It also shows that scientists are still discovering new information about the past and about dinosaurs, which just shows that there is so much more in the world to be found and discovered; that is just fascinating and mind blowing.

I really liked the little activity that was provided at the end of the book. It is an activity for kids to go out and apply and learn about feathers by searching for them in their own yards and studying them. It also provides more information about feathers for children. Other than that, I just really enjoyed all of the information that this book had. The pictures were also very pretty and consisted of deep, dark colors that brought the flying-feathered dinosaurs to life.

[Sara Sipos · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is full of information and big words. It is very educational about dinosaurs having feathers (a small fact I didn't realize). I think this book might be a good research book for a 3rd grader who is interested in dinosaurs. I don't think it would hold a younger child's attention span as it's lengthy and full of details. The pictures represent the text well and are nice to look at.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absorbing text that treats young children respectfully. Makes the point that we are still learning about dinosaurs and that scientists have been wrong without belaboring it. Beautiful illustrations, too.

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This non-fiction picture book takes the reader to the study of dinosaurs to find out if some dinosaurs had feathers. They did! There is a timeline included and lots of very interesting information about what is known about dinosaurs. Great illustrations.

[Kelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear information and full-color illustrations make this a great book for young dinosaur enthusiasts! Great to help start discussions on evolution, adaptations, and modern birdwatching.