Dinosaurs Roar, Butterflies Soar!

May 25, 2009
Barner revisits the weighty subjects of his popular Dinosaur Bones
, looking at how butterflies coexisted with dinosaurs: “By spreading pollen from bloom to bloom, butterflies helped flowering plants flourish. Flowering plants made more air for dinosaurs to breathe and huge amounts of food for them to eat.” Each double spread's format is the same: one sentence in colorful, blocky typeface sits amid the artist's bold cut-paper designs, the entire layout backed with a single, vivid hue. Additional facts in smaller type extend the narrative. The inviting, flashy interplay of the many colors, patterns and textures (e.g., painted butterfly wings are thinly edged in flower motifs) establishes an upbeat tone—except for the nearly monochromatic spread on dinosaur extinction. “But butterflies lived!” the next page reads, as two enormous specimens perch on flowers. An easy-to-read time line contextualizes the chronology of the first dinosaurs, flowers and butterflies (and even cats, dogs and humans) as a smattering of facts about seeds, insects or dinosaurs rounds out this aesthetic extension of a popular topic. Ages 4–8.

June 1, 2009
Gr 1-3-This gently informative book describes the role butterflies played in helping dinosaurs and their environment flourish. The main text offers a simpler narrative than the supplementary and more detailed one in small type that appears below or next to it. A close-up of an electric blue dinosaur with a butterfly on its snout accompanies the revelation that, after living together on Earth for millions of years, "suddenly, their time together ended." A few of the predominant theories about the dinosaurs' extinction and explanations of the continuing survival of butterflies are put forth. A final spread adds fun factoids about dinosaur and insect life. Barner's illustrations are, as always, fantastically bright, eye-catching cut-paper collages. A useful, engaging, and illuminating book."Susan Weitz, formerly at Spencer-Van Etten School District, Spencer, NY"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2009
Preschool-G In his latest picture book, Barner brings together two disparate orders of creatures, offering appealing images of dinosaurs coexisting peacefully with butterflies, as they did in fact do many millions of years ago. Combining pastels with cut and torn papers, Barners collages introduce a bright and dynamic world, posing an array of dinosaurs (like a purplish Triceratops and a sky-blue Tyrannosaurus Rex) and prettily patterned butterflies against solid backgrounds of vibrant colors. Barners text is also engaging, featuring two levels of information that address different degrees of comprehension and interest. The first conveys basic facts in a big typeface (A huge asteroid CRASHED into Earth, forming clouds of steam and dust that blocked the sun); the smaller typeface offers more detailed explanations (noting, for example, that fiery volcanic eruptions may have filled the sky with a thick layer of smoke and ash). Barner also provides a helpful time line, illustrating the longevity that allowed butterflies to survive the extinction of dinosaurs and greet the arrival of humans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2009
Barner exploits the popularity of dinosaurs and butterflies to introduce basic concepts about ecosystem relationships, extinction, and survival. The brightly colored, energetic paper-collage illustrations are the draw here, portraying friendly fauna frolicking in a verdant prehistoric paradise. The big scientific ideas may be lost on the intended audience, but the images are great to look at.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)