LITTLE JOURNEYS GET BIGGER

This series is aimed at young explorers who want to discover the wonders of nature, both the distant past and the present.
Led by Lia and Francesco the readers set off on great little journeys where they discover places to look at, touch, listen and smell, but also hidden places that they can only visit with their imagination.
The format, the big posters, the well- drawn natural illustrations and the story are all tools which allow children to get close to nature on a journey whose pages encourage physical contact.

Dear Dinosaur

The book balances between two literary genres: the diary and the scientific text. The tale starts by a dinosaur egg hatching, to tell its life and its world.The two characters, Lia and Francesco, travel throughout this world and speak about dinosaurs birth, growing up, reproduction, tipologies, behaviours and habits (such as fightings, hunting, defense). The big posters have been illustrated by Franco Tempesta and show to the reader an original and funny point of view. Thanks to the original format, the posters and the postcards, the children will phisically experience the book contents.

With big posters and 4 detachable postcards

<<On the floor of our room are four thousand dinosaur prints. I’ve drawn them on white sheets of paper with colours and felt pens. Foot prints of Brachiosaurus, of Triceratops, even of T-Rex, the fabulous blue-eyed predator of old. -There aren’t four thousand, Lia- my brother says, counting.
-There aren’t four thousand for those who don’t have any imagination- I reply, as I measure the prints and, coming across some that are longer than my arm I let out a shout of admiration and fear. –Do you recognise the footprint of the big nailed Brontosaurus? It’s a herbivore from the Jurassic age: look how its prints go together with those of Dimetrodon, the sabre-toothed dragon.
-Help!- shouts Francesco. -No, don’t be afraid, that terrifying dragon disappeared 250 million years before the gentile sauro was born. He shuts up, sighs and shuts up again. –how do you know all these things, Lia? Children don’t like dinosaurs. -Who says so?- I laugh, showing my Bambiraptor teeth.>>

<<- I say so, Lia and so do lots of my friends. - Oh yes, Francesco? Now then, let’s say that I’m the scientist and you’re the egg. Do you want to play? No, dear, you still have to be born to find out how the world works. Then, if you don’t get eaten by one of those famous egg thieves like the Cretaceous, you can grow up and fly away like a Pteranodon, the early look-alike of the pelican. Do you want to be a boy or girl egg, Francesco? -A boy, Lia, a beautiful Pteranodon egg with a giant crest to frighten my rivals and impress all the flying girls- replied my brother. -Pity, Francesco, if you had been a girl egg, you could have grown up to be brave like a mother dinosaur. -Brave, really brave?- he asked. -Really really brave and really elegant, my little dinosaur egg. The mother Oviraptor laid her eggs in a circle like a pearl necklace. -Then I want to be an Oviraptor boy egg!>>

<<My brother is the perfect egg. Round, oval, long. He moves into all the shapes he can, opening and closing his arms. He tries to make himself as small as a lemon, or as big as a watermelon, but he’s never enormous. I watch him and measure him. Well done Francesco, never more than 50 centimetres. This is science, not science fiction! Francesco the egg is balanced in a nest of pink sand and our room is now the Kingdom of the palaeontologists. The Dinosaur footsteps make intricate little paths. The footprints are so clear that in some cases you can make out the folds of skin on their claws.
-Dinosaurs used to walk on their toes, my little egg, and here there used to be swamps, mud and weeds which have preserved their tracks for ever. Extinction, oui oui!- I say with a French accent. I am an International scientist. But suddenly Francesco gives a shout and nearly breaks: -I’m a boy egg, and when I grow up I’m going to be a fine father. Didn’t you know, Mademoiselle Lia, that Daddy Dinosaurs were affectionate as well? And that when the male looked after the nest there were more eggs?>>

A NEW WAY TO SPEAK ABOUT DINOSAURS

Texts author: Emanuela Nava
Illustrations: Franco Tempesta, Erika Luppi 

Paperboard spiral bound volumes •  26 pages •   In 17 x 48 cm format •  Opensize 68 x 48 cm •  Age: from 5 years upwards
 
 
Series: Little journeys get bigger
Other titles in the series: Dear Sea, Dear Earth, Dear Park, Dear River.






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