Robert T. Bakker is a celebrated paleontologist. Raptor Red is his only fictional work, but he wrote another, controversial book called The Dinosaur Heresies. He is best known for his theories about warm-blooded dinosaurs.
Raptor Red takes place in the Cretaceous Period. Raptor Red, the main character, is a young adult female Utahraptor. She and her mate have not yet produced chicks, but they will this mating season. But a tragic accident gets in the way of their plans, leaving Raptor Red heartbroken and widowed, wandering prehistoric Utah's floodplains. This book is by far one of my all-time favorites. It is very advanced in its vocabulary and requires a fair background knowledge of dinosaurs and paleontology in general to be able to fully appreciate the magic it depicts. Opening your mind's eye to sync with Raptor Red's, you will know what it was like as a red-snouted raptor millions of years ago, in a world so unlike our own it is impossible to imagine walking over the spots where acrocanthosaurs tread and gazing into the skies that dactyls soared through.
Madison G. 8th grade science student
