Bernardosaurus says:Bernardosaurus says:The idea for this book came to me while doing research for some of my earlier dinosaur books that combined lots of dinosaur facts with fun. It boggled my mind when I learned that dinosaurs have been found all over the world on every continent, including Antarctica! I just had to create a book based on this fact.
This was one of the toughest books for me to work on. I spent countless hours at public libraries [I go to the library just like you do!] researching facts about dinosaurs as well as facts about the places they were found.
I had fun putting these together - like the dinosaur that was found in Russia. Scientists think this small two-legged dinosaur had a very well developed sense of balance. Russia is famous for its ballet, so my visual was of this dinosaur performing with ballerinas.
I had an idea for the endpapers that would visualize the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere showing where all the dinosaurs were found. These were two of the most difficult pages I have ever illustrated, and I almost gave up on this idea. I'm sure Harcourt would have accepted the book with simpler endpapers, but I'm glad I persisted, because I thought it would make a better book. Comments I have received about this book from children and teachers over the years make it all worthwhile.
I dedicated this book to my mother, who encouraged me ever since I was little, to pursue my dream of becoming an artist. I'm still pursuing that dream!