The Extinct Files: My Science Project, by Wallace Edwards

What this story is about:

Wally was planning to do his science project on his pet iguana. But just as he was getting started, he made a major discovery sure to rock the scientific community. He saw a dinosaur. Not a fossil, but a real dinosaur, right outside his bedroom window. Dinosaurs are alive — and living among us. In fact, they are right in Wally’s backyard! With the aid of stunning eyewitness accounts, The Extinct Files: My Science Project details the habitat, diet, grooming, health and fitness, communication and recreation of the contemporary dinosaurs, and much more. Wally has done his homework and it shows. His project follows tried-and-true scientific methodology and contains page after page of photographic evidence. But his shocking conclusion shows that today’s dinos guard their privacy fiercely?

My thoughts:

The Extinct Files: My Science Project is a cute, fun book about a boy who discovers dinosaurs aren’t extinct, but rather, alive and hiding among us.

The book is presented as a notebook containing Wally’s science project, with all the proper headings one would expect in a science project. “Photos” of the dinosaurs are “taped on”, lending to the illusion.

We had several laugh out loud moments reading this book, and Dylan was particularly fascinated by the illustrations.

Dylan’s review:

Funny, funny, funny. I like the part where the dinosaur ate half of the building. And dinosaurs at the restaurant. It was funny to see the dinosaurs reading the same book we were reading.

Learn, Play, Fun! Concepts learned:

You might think we used this book to launch into a more scientific discussion of dinosaur extinction, but we’ve already talked about dinosaurs a fair bit over the past year (it’s one of Dylan’s favorite subjects). Instead, I found this book a very useful – and fun! – way of illustrating what a science project is like: the detail in Wally’s observations, the photos he pasted into the book, the whole presentation of the project itself.

{ 0 comments }