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What would it have been like to come face to face with a two-metre-tall terror bird? Or stare into the mouth of the largest meat eater ever to walk the earth? Can you imagine a millipede that is nearly two metres long, or a dinosaur that is smaller than a chicken? In this actual size look at the prehistoric world, which includes two dramatic pull-out pages, you'll meet all these awe-inspiring creatures, and many others too!

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Publishers Weekly Review

In a follow-up to Actual Size that is sure to gladden the hearts of dinosaur fans, Prehistoric Actual Size by Steve Jenkins uses the same format and his dazzling cut-paper collage artwork to present facts about early creatures on land and sea, from as large as a Velociraptor to the still everpresent cockroach. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

School Library Journal Review

PreS-Gr 5-The exciting artistic presentation that worked so well in Actual Size (Houghton, 2004) is equally successful when applied to prehistoric creatures. Progressing chronologically from a dot-sized protozoan of 550 million years ago, Jenkins has chosen the animals and the portions of them to depict to great effect. Cut- and torn-paper figures reveal texture and delicate details, from the long wings of an early dragonfly to the feathered tuft of an eight-foot terror bird. A three-inch spiny shark stands out distinctly against a page of white space, while less than half of a giant millipede barely fits across two pages. A series of foldout pages reveals one complete small dinosaur (Saltopus), the impressive beak and head of a flying reptile (Dsungaripterus), and the thick claw of a fish-eating dinosaur (Baryonyx). Besides the sheer visual impact, the illustrations often highlight features mentioned in the brief text, such as the sharp beak of Protoceratops. Closing pages offer more information about each species, along with spot illustrations that provide the full-body view necessarily lacking from many of the actual-size renderings. Only 5 of the 17 animals are actual dinosaurs, and the inclusion of mammals, insects, and other groups emphasizes the diversity of life forms over this vast prehistoric span. The largest animal shown is also the most dramatic: the top and bottom teeth of Giganotosaurus fill an entire spread. Sure to elicit plenty of "Wows" from the 560's aisle.-Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, OR (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Gr. 1-3. Children fascinated by Jenkins' vibrant cut-paper artwork in Actual Size (2004) won't want to miss this oversize album of prehistoric creatures that range from tiny to enormous. Not limited to dinosaurs, the animals pictured here include the minuscule protozoa, one millimeter in diameter; the eight-foot-tall terror bird ; and the Giganotosaurus, which may have been the largest predator that ever lived on land. The most arresting spreads are those in which the animal is too large to picture in its entirety. Only the Giganotosaurus' huge teeth are pictured (a few of those take up nearly a page), and the head and neck of the large flying reptile Dsungaripterus requires a four-page foldout. The dramatic effect of showing creatures at their actual size is even greater this time than in the first book, which featured contemporary animals. It's certainly hard to imagine that a three-inch shark, a dragonfly with a two-foot wingspan, and a six-foot millipede once actually lived on Earth. Information about and an illustration of the entire creature (not to scale) completes this colorful volume. --Diane Foote Copyright 2005 Booklist

Horn Book Review

(Preschool, Primary) Jenkins follows up Actual Size (rev. 5/04), which focused on living animals, with this collection of life-sized depictions of extinct animals that lived between 3 million and 550 million years ago. His stunning paper collage illustrations provide artistic interpretations of what each animal may have looked like, and the name and brief description of each animal is accompanied by its time of existence (in millions of years) and measurements. The tiniest -- a protozoan -- is a mere dot, while the teeth alone of the largest -- the Giganotosaurus -- fill the page. A few animals do fit entirely onto the page or spread, including some rather large insects and tiny dinosaurs and rodents, and for the animals too big to fit, Jenkins either uses foldout pages or depicts just part of the animal (usually the head). This creative treatment encourages readers to use their imaginations to picture what the rest of the animal looked like. When ready, readers can turn to pages at the back of the book to check their thinking against small pictures of the entire animal, and to read more factual information about each. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.