I have long been fascinated with dragons and fantasy ~ magical things and places of mythical lore. As a child, I would read about them and imagine what they were like. I was thrilled when I got the opportunity to use and review this book “Dragons: Legends and Lore of Dinosaurs” with my children. I wanted to share the mystery and fantasy of these creatures with my kids, but from a biblical perspective. This book does just that by making a person stop and think about God’s creation. There is so much more to God’s creation than we can imagine.
I’ve been very pleased with this book. It’s a collection of facts revolving around the evidence that dragons were very real, and very similar to what we call dinosaurs, biblical proof of dragon’s existence from real-life witness accounts and scriptural references. It’s filled with fun flaps, pull-out pages, mini-booklets, envelopes to open, and pockets of hidden facts. The vocabulary used in this book is for the 4th-6th grade level, but my 3rd grade daughter enjoyed it just as much as my 5th grader with me reading it to them.
A lot of questions regarding creation cannot be answered with material evidence; but if looking at the history of our world, we find answers, such as the fact that dragons and dinosaurs are recorded in stories as drawings on cave walls and ancient art from around the world, in every culture. They are found not only in world history, but in the bible with the Leviathan in Job. And if in fact there wasn’t some existence of these animals, then why are they such an important part of so many cultures history around the world?
Learning about other lands that had similiar creatures and sea monsters really added to the curiosity that I already had. I never knew that "Nessie" might have had relatives in other areas of the world, such as Canada and Australia.
I really enjoyed how dragons were brought out in a “creationist” perspective. We learned that the original biblical Hebrew text included the word "tannin" (land or seas monsters or serpents) and in Greek, "drakon" was used. The reader gets an accurate account of God’s creations through comparisons made from legend and mythical lore to history. And who would have thought there would have been so many different names for "Dragon" ~ in 21 different languages.
Last, but not least, was the beautiful art work. My kids were so fascinated with the incredible pictures of these fantastic creatures that we spent several days drawing our own and trying to imitate the ones they had seen in the book.
I certainly would recommend it to any Christian or homeschool family who is looking for a way to explain the “fantasy and lore” of dragons and dinosaurs from a biblical and God created perspective. My children have asked to read it over again.
*I was provided this book for use and review by Master Books/New Leaf Publishing*
