EVERYTHING YOUR KIDS EVER WANTED TO KNOW...

EVERYTHING YOUR KIDS EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT DINOSAURS & YOU WERE AFRAID THEY’D ASK by Teri Degler (Carol/Birch Lane: $9.95, illustrated). The current spate of toys, stuffed animals, lunch boxes, etc. testifies to the enduring fascination that dinosaurs hold for small children. Despite the trite title and occasional spasms of silliness, Degler has compiled a pleasantly readable guide for parents of budding paleontologists. She stresses that dinosaurs were not the lumbering, inefficient mountains of flesh imagined by early 20th-Century scientists and illustrators, but well-adapted, highly successful land animals. She also deals with the real meanings hidden within many seemingly innocent inquiries: When small children ask about what carnivorous dinosaurs ate, they’re really asking “Could they eat me?”