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Dinotopia: River Quest — John Vornholt Published by Random House, 1995 Somewhere on a lost island, where half of the population is made up of dinosaurs, is a world full of adventure. And when you get there, you'll never want to leave. The main characters, Magnolia and Paddlefoot, are the new habitat partners of Freshwater. They live in Waterfall City, on the west side of Dinotopia. After their 6-year apprenticeship, their master Edwick decides to turn the job over to Magnolia and Paddlefoot because of his recent injury near Volcaneum. As soon as they get back to Waterfall City, they have to start on their first assignment before they even get their coronation ceremony! The Polongo River, the lifeblood of Waterfall City, has mysteriously stopped flowing, and it's up to Magnolia to fix it. In this book, the two partners, along with their new friends Birch and Rogo, were constantly in some kind of a jam and having to figure their way out of things. Magnolia was always quick to think of a solution, but still depended a lot on Birch and Rogo. My favorite part of the book was when Paddlefoot, the 6-ton dinosaur, sank down to his waist in quicksand and tried lying on his stomach to float to the top. Dinotopia had a lot of interesting information, and I learned a lot about nature and dinosaurs. I think that the main idea of this story is that there is a whole "other world" inside our world that's full of opportunities just like our world, and a dinosaur has just as much of a chance as a person. Here, anybody should have just as much of a chance as anybody else. In Dinotopia, Magnolia has one of the most important jobs on the whole island, and she's only 13 years old. —Katie, Grade 6

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