This book was recommended to me by a child during the reading interview for our English task. I asked the child, who is G&T, if he could bring the book in so we could read it together during my placement. The book focuses on Teggs, who is an astrousaur and captain of the DSS Sauropod. Along with his crew consisting of Gipsy, Arx and Iggy, they all work together to defeat the evil sea monster lurking in Aqua Minor.This book is very engaging and has a nice flow to it. I found myself wanting to continue reading it. I really like how Cole explains everything in detail, especially the characters in the book. An example is when he introduces Gipsy :- “Gipsy was a duck-billed hadrosaur with scaly, stripy skin”. Cole makes excellent use of adjectives to describe characters and scenarios. The words Cole uses would definitely challenge a child and it would also encourage a child to use a dictionary to find the meaning of certain words.I really like how Cole uses his imagination by including dinosaurs from the prehistoric past into a futuristic setting. The species of the dinosaurs are non-fictional as hadrosaurs and dimorphodons did exist (and yes, I had to Google to find that out!). This book is also cross curricular as you have themes such as history and science within it. Many children I have worked with in the past have an interest in dinosaurs and space and space travel. The book also contains collectable cards which the child informed me about. I believe this is a brilliant idea as it is a discrete incentive to keep children engaged and hooked with reading.This book is definitely for readers of higher years of the primary phase due to its complexity of the words and the difficulty some children may encounter comprehending the story line and structure. I believe the majority of year four children would encounter difficulty with this book but I would never discourage them from reading it if they wished to do so.
