Dinosaur Summer is two adventure stories in one novel, with the first story in Book One being told in order to set up the second story in Book Two. Book One takes Peter and his father from their dreary apartment to the entry to El Grande. It fleshes out the important characters, explains why the dinosaurs were captured, why they are to be returned to El Grande, and establishes how dire the peril is for anyone trapped unarmed on El Grande. Book Two is the adventure that the reader has been anticipating from the moment Peter realizes that he is to accompany the dinosaurs back to Venezuela.

Bear provides vivid descriptions of his characters' experiences. For instance, "The sun seemed to actively hate him; its brightness and heat lay on his head like a hot brick" is a sharply observed sentence that uses metaphorical language (the...