The Saskatchewan Publishers Group from time to time will send in a book to us at the Outlook newspaper to take a look at. Here’s this week’s pick.
“Dinosaur Blackout”
by Judith Silverthorne
Published by Coteau Books
Review by Shelley A. Leedahl
$8.95 ISBN 978-1-55050-375-3
It’s unusual to begin the fourth novel in a series without having read the three previous. Would the book stand on its own, I wondered? Or would it be like arriving late to a party and feeling lost? I needn’t have worried. Award-winning Regina author Judith Silverthorne has created a time-travel adventure for juvenile readers that definitely pulls its own weight.
The rich story concerns young Daniel, who lives on a farm in Saskatchewan’s Frenchman River Valley near Eastend, home of the T.rex Discovery Centre. Daniel’s a budding paleontologist and a great kid. The boy has learned how to use prehistoric foliage to travel back to the Cretaceous Period, where dinosaurs roar and roam.
Silverthorne invents a credible Cretaceous landscape and creatures by appealing to readers’ senses and by seamlessly weaving facts into her story. She also does a superb job of local colour. It’s easy to visualize the buttes and coulees of the Frenchman River Valley.
She’s done an exemplary job of establishing the farm scenes, where everyone works together, whether that’s “Loading pitchforks with manure and heaping it onto the stoneboat” or saddling up the trail-ride horses for tourists.
There’s much spirited dialogue in this easy-to-read novel, and it never rings a false note. The writer’s skill’s are also apparent in her offering of just enough information about Daniel’s previous trips to prehistoric time to make us feel we’ve been along on all the other journeys.
The greatest tests for a novel series are whether its individual books can stand alone, and whether reading one compels readers to seek the others. “Dinosaur Blackout” passes these tests with (Pterodactylus) flying colours.
This book is available from your local bookstore or from the Saskatchewan Publishers Group at http://www.skbooks.com
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