Dinotopia by
James Gurney
The Story
The Story of Dinotopia starts out with
Will and
Arthur Denison sailing their ship
Venturer in
uncharted waters. Their ship is wrecked in a
typhoon and they are carried ashore an island by
dolphins. On the island they soon discover, that not only are there
people and
dinosaurs living on the island, but that they
coexist and
communicate peacefully. They are welcomed and are taught all about Dinotopia, but they soon leave to learn more.
They arrive at
Waterfall city (all the
illustrations in the book are great but Waterfall City is
simply magnificent). Waterfall City is the center of
learning and
arts. There, they have a special
clock called a "
helicoid geochronograph" which combines both the
Judeo-Christian view of
linear time with the
Indo-European view of
cyclical time. They also make their plans there, for their trips to
Tree Town and the
World Beneath. Remember, that all this time, the people have to
accomodate for the largest dinosaur in everything that they do.
Tree Town is actually a
summer camp for young people who want to learn how to
feed,
ride, and
communicate with dinosaurs. The dinosaurs there (all
herbivores) all sleep in
barns on the ground, while the people there all sleep in
large baskets hung from
trees (so they are
protected from
wandering carnivores).
Norah, an older woman, takes care of Tree Town and all the boys there,
cooking them meals and trying to keep them out of
trouble. Will fits in fine with the rest of the boys, even taking part in the
Dinosaur Olympics afterwards, riding on top of a dinosaur and catching
rings on a pole.
Since he won that race in the Dinosaur olympics, Will was able to
continue his
training in
Canyon City and become a
skybax pilot. His teacher warns everyone not to fly past certain
stone sentinels for that is the gate to
the World Beneath. While will learns how to fly these giant, winged reptiles, Arthur only wants to
ponder those strange sentinels which insist that
Dinotopia has a long and
rich history. The
key to that
history is in the World Beneath.
The Next Part is continued in the next book
The Alphabet in Dinotopia
Roman:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Chandaran Transitional(A
Mix between Roman and Dinotopia Footprint):
_ \___ /
_ |_ /|\ _| \|_ | /|\ |__|
/_\ |_\ | /_| |_ \|/ | | |
\|/ \ |_/ \_/ \_| |_ | \|/ \/ |
\|/ ___/ /\ <--- ____>
| | \ | / | /\/\/\ |\ |
\| | |/ | / /\/\ \ | \ |
-| _\ \|\ | / \ | \ |
/ _/ /| \ ---> / \ | \|
______
| <---| | | | |
/ | | | | | | | |
/ | | | | | | | |
/ | \_|_|_/ \_|__/
|-- |
\__/
| | |-> \ | / \ | / ---->->
| | | \|/ \ |/ /
| | | | \ \/ /
| | | | / \ | /
\__/ \_|__/ / \ / /
/ /_____
Dinotopia Footprint:
\|/ _\_ | _/_ \|/ _\_ | _ /_ \|/
| / /|\ \ \|/ / /|\ \ _\|_
| \|/ \|/ \|/ /
| | |
_\_ | _/_ \|/ _\_ | _/_ \|/ _\_
/ /|\ \ | / /|\ \ _|/_ _//_
_\_ _\_ _\_ /|\ /|\ /|\ /|\ \ \
/ / /
| _/_
/|\ \ \|/\|/ \|/_\_ \|/ | \|/_/_ _\_\|/
_/_ _/_ | | | / | /|\ | \ / |
\ \
_\_ _\_
/ /
(Remember: These are all made in Dinosaur
Footprints.)
Dinotopia Books
There are currently three Dinotopia books by
James Gurney:
Dinotopia:
A Land Apart from Time
Dinotopia:
The World Beneath
and
Dinotopia:
First Flight
Other people have written books about Dinotopia such as:
And the
Dinotopia Digest Novels (
Chapter books for Young Readers)