Wonderfully textured collages are set against a white background, accompanied by a minimal text gloss about the animals, and their sizes. Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, ORA new exploration of the biological world, from one of the current masters of collage, features life-size-not scaled-representations of the extremes of the animal kingdom. Sure to elicit plenty of "Wows" from the 560's aisle. The largest animal shown is also the most dramatic: the top and bottom teeth of Giganotosaurus fill an entire spread. Only 5 of the 17 animals are actual dinosaurs, and the inclusion of mammals, insects, and other groups emphasizes the diversity of life forms over this vast prehistoric span. Closing pages offer more information about each species, along with spot illustrations that provide the full-body view necessarily lacking from many of the actual-size renderings. Besides the sheer visual impact, the illustrations often highlight features mentioned in the brief text, such as the sharp beak of Protoceratops. A series of foldout pages reveals one complete small dinosaur (Saltopus ), the impressive beak and head of a flying reptile (Dsungaripterus ), and the thick claw of a fish-eating dinosaur (Baryonyx ). A three-inch spiny shark stands out distinctly against a page of white space, while less than half of a giant millipede barely fits across two pages. Cut- and torn-paper figures reveal texture and delicate details, from the long wings of an early dragonfly to the feathered tuft of an eight-foot terror bird.
Progressing chronologically from a dot-sized protozoan of 550 million years ago, Jenkins has chosen the animals and the portions of them to depict to great effect.
The exciting artistic presentation that worked so well in Actual Size (Houghton, 2004) is equally successful when applied to prehistoric creatures.
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