About this item
Renowned for their courage, their chivalry, and their ability to fight mythical creatures, the Knights of the Round Table must face their most dangerous opponents yet - DINOSAURS!This heavily illustrated middle grade novel from award-winning author and artist Matt Phelan is a hilarious, rip-roaring tale of derring-do perfect for reluctant readers and fans of How to Train Your Dragon and The Terrible Two. Let me tell you a secret about the Knights of the Round Table: they don't have much to do. The realm is at peace and dragons are few and far between. So Merlin decides to send the knights out on a real adventure to a world filled with the most terrible lizards of all: DINOSAURS! Knights vs. Dinosaurs is a highly illustrated, fast-paced adventure full of uproarious knightly hijinks, surprising secrets, and terrifying dinosaurs. With art on nearly every page, including an epic fight scene depicted in several graphic-novel style spreads, this engaging story is Monty Python for young middle school readers.A great choice for reluctant readers, aspiring knights, and fans of Peter Brown's The Wild Robot.
About the Author
Matt Phelan made his illustrating debut with Betty G. Birney's (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster) . Since then he has illustrated many picture books and novels for young readers, including by Eileen Spinelli (Dial) , by Alice Schertle (Harcourt) , and by Susan Patron (Simon & Schuster) winner of the 2007 Newbery Medal. Matt studied film and theater in college with the goal of one day writing and directing movies. But his first love was always drawing, and the more he saw the wonderful world of children's books, the more he realized that this was the place for him. Being an illustrator is in many ways like being an actor, director, cinematographer, costumer, and set designer rolled into one. Matt writes: "I have a fascination with the decade of the 1930s. The movies were learning to talk (and in the case of King Kong, growl) , the music was beginning to swing, and the nation was thrown into tremendous turmoil. On one hand, you see a level of suffering documented in the dramatic and gritty photography of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans. On the other hand, consider what the American public was flocking to see in the movie theaters: the glamour and grace of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing in a series of perfect musicals. For my first book as both writer and illustrator (coming in 2009 by Candlewick Press) , I naturally gravitated to this complex decade, specifically the strange world of the Dust Bowl. "
