Like a lot of kids, I was absolutely nuts for dinosaurs when I was growing up, and my favorite book of them all was this one that I used to read at Liberty House whenever my mother went shopping there. I asked for it for my birthday that year, and once I got it it became my most prized possession!
Called simply DINOSAURS AND OTHER PREHISTORIC REPTILES, published in 1960 by Golden Press, and written by Jane Werner Watson with artwork by Rudolph F. Zallinger, this was one of the BEST-illustrated Dinosaur books out there. With the barrage of Dinosaur books available nowadays, it’s hard to believe, but back in the early 7o’s, there were but a HANDFUL of Dinosaur books any library had, and most of them were for little LITTLE kids, accompanied with uninspired sketches or(even worse) cartoonish drawings. But that Golden Book of Dinosaurs- MAN, the artwork was just incredible, and even now as an adult the paintings just amaze me. So much realistic details, as befitting the master who created the "Age Of Reptiles"!!
Look at all the attention to the flora and fauna in this shot of Ornitholestes about to make goulash out of Archaeopterix. ..
…And this double page spread of a terrifying Allosaurus killing a poor defenseless Brontosaurus was my favorite shot of the entire book- I remember staring at this one for HOURS, so moved by the illustration! Note the camptosaurus in the back going “What, ME Worry?” Anyway…So I LOVED this book to death!
When I began first grade, my little brother was too young to go to class, but still had to come along when my mother took me to and from school. One day he said he was too tired to go with her to pick me up, so since we lived only a block away from the school, my mother thought it would be OK to leave him home for a few minutes.
When my mother picked me up and we got back home, we were presented with the image of my brother sitting on top of our refrigerator, where he’d climbed up to get at the bottle of Flintstone Vitamins (everyone loves those Flintstones Vitamins!) which were in a basket up there, supposedly away from children’s reach.
To my mother’s horror, my brother had eaten almost on third of the bottle, and immediately called out family doctor to ask what to do. He had my mother pick up some medicine which would make my brother throw the whole thing up . She administered the stuff to him, but as the results weren’t immediate, he killed time by reading some of our kid books. You can see where this is going.
When I happened to come into the living room, I realize he was reading MY Dinosaur Book- but before I could protest and take it away from him, he paused for dramatic effect and then emptied the entire contents of delicious Flintstone Vitamins from his stomach...and ALL OVER my beloved BOOK!
I remember jumping up and down yelling ARGHHHH! HE BARFED ON MY DINOSAUR BOOOOOOOK! To which my Mom said, "Don’t yell, he couldn’t help it.” I asked “what about my book!” to which she curtly said, You have to throw it away. THROW IT AWAY!!! With tears in my eyes I surveyed the damage- vomit all over the open book on the floor! I was SOOOO fricking traumatized, to this day, I can still remember EXACTLY which PAGE he barfed on, this gatefold with Iguanadon and Trachodon:
Well, Luckily for me, my birthday was coming up, so I was able to get myself a replacement Book, and was so relieved I didn’t even think about what a rip-off it was that I had to blow a birthday gift on a book I already had! You best believe I guarded that copy with my life, and though It’s falling abaprt and bound with scotch tape throughout, I still own that book as part of my childhood treasures!
PS: At the time, the only other Dinosaur Book out there that could compare was the equally stunning (though black and white) illustrations in the DINOSAURS AND MORE DINOSAURS (1965) book by M. Jean Craig and painted by George Solonevich.
A few years later, another amazing book called ALBUM of DINOSAURS (1972) by Tom McGowan and Illos by Rod Ruth came out, and those were pretty much my “BIG THREE” of Dinosaur Books growing up!
