Little Tails in Prehistory (Family Comic Friday)

You've heard of moose and squirrel. Surely, you are all familiar with cat and dog. But have you ever encountered two such friends as squirrel and dog? Well, let me introduce you to Chipper the dog and Squizzo the squirrel! Together, they are the stars of this week's Family Comic Friday Selection: Little Tails in Prehistory!

 

Little Tails in Prehistory
Written by Frederic Brremaud
Art by Federico Bertolucci
Translated by Mike Kennedy
Published by Lion Forge

Squizzo and Chipper take an exciting trip through the prehistoric past encountering dinosaurs, wooly mammoths and cavemen! The intrepid animals starf out in millions of years in the past where they encounter a archeopteryx; a colorful feathered reptile. The creature tells the duo that in order to get back to the modern era, Squizzo and Chipper must travel to the heart of a volcano seen way off in the distance. As the dog and squirrel get closer to the volcano, they move forward in time meeting and sometimes fleeing from ancient creatures of different periods of prehistory.

Prehistory is the fourth book in the Little Tails series created by the French creative team of Frederic Brremaud and Federico Bertolucci. In all of these volumes, now totaling six, Chipper and Squizzo learn about animals from the deepest oceans to the greenest forests in the land.

Each page is a wonderful mix of adorable sequential art and lavish painted scenery. Chipper and Squizzo's adventures take place in the cartoon segments of each page. The animals they discover are rendered in some visually stunning settings. As a child, I remember being entranced by this book about dinosaurs. I forget the name, but that book was filled with these fantastic scenes of dinosaurs doing battle or enjoying life as a thunder lizard would. Little Tails in Prehistory brings back the wonder of that lost treasury of mine.

Brremaud and Bertolucci do something in this book that is one of my keys to a perfect Family Comic Friday offering- it's both entertaining AND educational! Sure, saying that the triceratops used it's flanged collar to attract a mate is a bit of a stretch. That animal lived before humans were even thought of. So how do we really know that's what a triceratops ready did to find it's soul mate? Regardless, there's lots to learn in this book. Thanks to Chipper and Squizzo, the learning is also fun and funny.

This 2017 book is recommended for all ages. Being a book about dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts, there are some complicated words like elasmosaurus. So an older co-reader's help may be needed for younger bookworms. While at least one dinosaur chases our heroes, there's nothing overly intense or scary. Jurassic Park this is not.

Check out Little Tails in Prehistory and it's sister volumes at a library near you or at Amazon.