Book Description
Thanks to Bertram Phillips's crazy science fair project, Will Reilly's mind is catapulted back millions of years and into the body of a Raptor. But he is not alone. Three other students are dropped into the predator-infested swamp that is prehistoric Texas. Trouble is, before any of them can get out of this mess, Will must face off with a ferocious Raptor named Hook!

From the Inside Flap
Thanks to Bertram Phillips's crazy science fair project, Will Reilly's mind is catapulted back millions of years and into the body of a Raptor. But he is not alone. Three other students are dropped into the predator-infested swamp that is prehistoric Texas. Trouble is, before  any of them can get out of this mess, Will must face off with a ferocious Raptor named Hook!

ANNOTATION

When thirteen-year-old Bertram and three friends find themselves living in dinosaur bodies sixty-seven million years ago, they discover new ways to think about their lives.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Thanks to Bertram Phillips's crazy science fair project, Will Reilly's mind is catapulted back millions of years and into the body of a Raptor. But he is not alone. Three other students are dropped into the predator-infested swamp that is prehistoric Texas. Trouble is, before any of them can get out of this mess, Will must face off with a ferocious Raptor named Hook!

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Dinotopia fans hungry for more Mesozoic adventure will happily devour this time-travel saga featuring four junior high school students. It all begins at the science fair when whiz kid Bertram's M.I.N.D. (Memory INterpreter Device) Machine zaps him and three classmates (graffiti artist Janine, pretty but vicious Candayce and football player Mike) back 67 million years. After being knocked unconscious, the students awake to find themselves transformed into a motley crew of prehistoric beasts. The serious problem of finding a way to return to the 1990's is lightened considerably by the teens' comic attempts to adjust to their new forms. Bertram, now an Ankylosaurus, is plagued with a chronic farting problem. Candayce is, ironically, turned into a Leptoceratops ("What had happened to her?" she asks herself. "Her thighs were enormous! And she had a pot belly!") The meat of the drama, however, has mostly to do with the foursome's development of survival skills--finding food, warding off enemies and escaping natural disaster--and their private journeys to discover who they really are on the "inside." Although scientific facts about the era are woven into the plot a little too self-consciously, Ciencin's (Godzilla: Journey to Monster Island) enticing blend of humor, adolescent angst and crisis-a-chapter excitement may hook even reluctant readers. Final artwork not seen by PW. Ages 10-up. (Mar.)

Children's Literature - Judy Silverman

Wouldn't it be wonderful if someone built a time machine to take us back to the time of the dinosaurs! Well, thirteen-year-old Bertram Phillips has done just that. His science fair project works beyond his wildest imaginings-and it will change his life forever. Bertram, who is low man in the survival-of-the-fittest world of junior high school, inadvertently brings three other kids with him to the Cretaceous period, and they fit into their new environment just fine-because they've all become dinosaurs. The story is very real in both time periods. It's got some screamingly funny moments, and if you can suspend disbelief to accept dinosaurs who talk to each other, it's a page-turner. Bertram the human who avoids predators at school discovers what it's like to be a peace loving vegetarian Ankylosarus, Candyce the human beauty queen copes with the "thunder thighs" of a Leptoceratops, while Mike the star quarterback without a killer instinct is now a T. Rex, and Janine the morose plodder soars with the pterodactyls. They all adapt, eventually, but how will they ever get home?

School Library Journal