Astrosaurs Academy: Deadly Drama! by Steve Cole

2nd July 2009, Red Fox (Random House imprint)

110 pages

Review copy

Childrens 7+ fantasy

Cushions: 1/5

Smiles: 5/5

Overall rating: 5/5

The brightly coloured front cover gives a clue about the perils which the young dinosaurs face in Deadly Drama. The added extra of four collectors cards, all in laminated type card (so in theory safe from a few drops of water, and should spring back into shape after being squashed in a pocket or bag) are bright equally brightly coloured and fun to read.

Astrosaur Academy is where young dinosaurs can learn to be heroes to protect the Vegetarian Sector (I can see you smiling from here! The names and references in this book are cool) from troublemaking carnivores. How the dinosaurs came to be in space rather than earth - well, that's explained in the first chapter.

Three groups of friends find themselves chosen to star in a film promoting the Academy. Unfortunately for Teggs, Blinks and Dutch, the somewhat pretentious Damona and her gang are set to star in the show, as are the rather cute bagaceratops triplets. Whisked away to a different island, the nine cadets soon discover that all is not well. Someone wants to sabotage the film - but why? Each new trap sets the dinosaurs in greater depths of peril. And, as the title suggests, at several points they are in danger of dying. I was completely wrong as to who the sabateur was, so that was a nice twist.

There's a lot of humour to be had for both adults and children here - especially if you know about Stephen Spielberg! This is a fun series, and I'd definitely like to read more of them. I think it promotes friendship, and proves that all skills can be useful at some point in life. It shows that we may not like people, but they can help out in tight situations. I think everyone can relate to at least one of the characters in this book. I'd love to be an astrosaur - the different species of dinosaurs mean each cadet can have a special skill to use (long tail, thicker skull etc).

For more information about Astrosaurs check out the interactive website.

Personally, I'm eager for reading Cows in Action, also by Steve Cole. Watch this space as new books get released - I'll be on the look out for them!