As her story progresses, Lampman skillfully interweaves much scientific lore on dinosaurs and paleontology, such as discussions of land and marine dinosaurs, dinosaur diet and behavior, fossil excavation, and climatic changes.

However, much of her information is now out of date. Although accepted as true at the time, the scientific beliefs in the novel have since been supplanted.

For example, its hypotheses on the reasons for dinosaurs' extinction, among them that mammals ate the dinosaurs' eggs, have been replaced by more complex explanations. The novel also holds that because of their comparatively small brains the large species of dinosaurs lacked adequate intelligence. New evidence of relatively complex social behavior in dinosaurs has rendered the belief in dinosaurs' outright witlessness unjustifiable. Readers may want to seek out more up-to-date information on dinosaurs.

Also of concern to some readers and parents will be the novel's sexism.

Reflecting the...