Velociraptor: The Dinosaur Chronicles, #1

By John Wilson

A perfect, illustrated, easy-to-read novel for eager young dinosaur fanatics.

 

"As a great adventure story and scientific tour of the Cretaceous world, Weet keeps the reader enthralled to the end." The Log.

 

Somewhere in the badlands of southern Alberta lies the gateway to an alien world of adventure. Welcome to Weet's world—a world of 66 million years ago when dinosaurs ruled. A world that Eric has only dreamed of. A world into which the twelve-year-old dinosaur expert, his seven-year-old sister, Rose, and their dog, Sally, are suddenly and mysteriously transported.

Eric soon finds out that fossilized dinosaur bones don't tell the whole story—dinosaurs have developed intelligence! One of them, Weet, befriends the time travellers as they find themselves embroiled in a series of distinctly prehistoric adventures. Will Eric, Rose and Sally ever be able to return to their own world before the disaster that Eric knows is looming over Weet's world strikes?

The Dinosaur Chronicles are updated reworkings of the bestselling Weet Trilogy originally published in the '90s.

"John Wilson has created an entirely believable world, complete with lush vegetation…and the exotic animal life we expect the time of the dinosaurs. The twist he throws in with Weet and his intelligent family makes the book a true page-turner. Wilson writes in clear, complex sentences with…vocabulary that does not condescend to young readers; the story is so compelling that there is danger they won't continue reading. Highly Recommended." (Canadian Book Review Annual )

"The ideas and issues of the story are strong, as is the writing. An informative and exciting story for children." Recommended." (CM Magazine )

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Wilson
• Release date: May 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223970071

John Wilson

John Wilson is an ex-geologist and award-winning author of fifty novels and non-fiction books for adults and teens. His passion for history informs everything he writes, from the recreated journal of an officer on Sir John Franklin's doomed Arctic expedition to young soldiers experiencing the horrors of the First and Second World Wars and a memoir of his own history. John researches and writes in Lantzville on Vancouver Island

Book preview

Velociraptor: The Dinosaur Chronicles book1

Copyright © 1995 (as Weet) and 2023 John Wilson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Velociraptor is an updated and extensively revised easy-to-read edition of Weet. A consensus readability index is around 5, making Velociraptor ideally suitable for ages 8 and 12, although it could be read aloud to younger dinosaur-interested kids and works as a high-interest low-vocabulary text for older reluctant readers.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Wilson, John (John Alexander), 1951 -

Velociraptor: The Dinosaur Chronicles book 1/John Wilson

First published as Weet by Napoleon Publishing in 1995

Cover design and photography by John Wilson

For more information on the author and his books, visit:

http://www.johnwilsonauthor.com

Interior illustration by Janice Armstrong

https://www.instagram.com/armstrong_artwork/?hl=en

One

Saved by mathematics

Eric’s toes are long, twisted roots, pushing their way deep into the soil and rock below him, past the fossilized remains of ancient worlds, down to the hot, molten core of the planet itself. His legs are tree trunks covered in peeling bark and his knees two ugly knots of wood. Eric is rooted to the spot and the monster in front of him is getting close—at a fearsome speed.

The beast is almost five feet tall, which means the teeth in the open jaws are at Eric’s eye level. Two short, clawed arms are reaching out hungrily for the boy as the powerful legs propel the creature forward. A long, rigid tail provides balance and each hind foot sports an evil, six-inch-long claw.

Dinosaur, Eric thinks. A big velociraptor. Not accurate, it must have escaped from Jurassic Park.

Oddly, the creature is changing. Now the terrifying narrow jaws have morphed into a large yellow beak that opens and shuts with a loud clucking sound and a red comb has appeared on the top of its head. The comb flops ridiculously from side to side as the animal runs. It’s half evil killer and half cartoon bird.

I’ve discovered a new dinosaur, Eric says to himself, undecided whether to laugh or scream. I’ll call it a velocichicken.

It’s not fair. In three days, Eric will be twelve and he’ll never get to use the baseball glove or play the video game that lie, neatly wrapped, in the bottom of the closet. On the other hand, he’s glad he decided not to do Monday’s math homework for Mr. Corbett. Adding up numbers seems a silly way to spend your last hours.

Eric closes his eyes. A scream echoes behind him. He opens his eyes and twists round. His attacker has grown and is heading off into the distance with a screaming Mr. Corbett slung over one shoulder.

I'll give you an A+ if you rescue me, Mr. Corbett shouts.

The offer’s tempting, but there’s nothing Eric can do, his toes have almost reached Australia and there’s an annoying buzzing noise beside his head.

~ ~ ~

Mr. Corbett and the velocichicken fade as Eric fumbles for the snooze button on his alarm clock. Why is the alarm going off on a Sunday? Eric tries to roll over, but his legs are still numb. He struggles to straighten them and is rewarded with a grunt from the weight lying across his knees.

Sally, get off, he orders.

Within the mass of brown hair, a crescent of white appears as an eye opens. How serious is the threat? Not very. The eye closes again.

Sally! Eric rolls onto his side, draws his legs up and pushes. The dog and the duvet end up in a tangled heap at the foot of the bed. Reluctantly, Sally edges onto the floor, stretches and yawns widely.

Drumheller! Badlands! Dinosaur bones! That explains everything—the alarm, the dream about dinosaurs, and the undone math homework. It’s late October, possibly the last good weekend before winter, and his parents have agreed to spend the day in the badlands of southern Alberta.

To Sally's surprise, Eric leaps out of bed and begins rummaging in his closet for clean clothes. This doesn’t look like a school day, despite the noisy thing beside the bed. Perhaps it means an excursion? Sally wags her tail, hopefully.

We’re going to Drumheller, Eric announces as he hauls on a T-shirt. Maybe I’ll find you a dinosaur bone to chew on. Eric loves all dinosaurs—triceratops, parasaurolophus, stegosaurus, even the scary ones like tyrannosaurus and velociraptor.

Eric hops around the room, hauling on his jeans while he searches for his runners. You know, Sally, he says, the dinosaurs ruled the earth for 150 million years. If a giant asteroid hadn’t killed them all 66 million years ago, they’d still be here and we wouldn’t. There’d be no humans, elephants, lions, moose, or dogs. We wouldn’t have evolved.

Sally cocks her head to one side. This is definitely not an ordinary morning.

Eric sits on the edge of his bed and slips his runners on. What would the dinosaurs look like now, he wonders out loud. Would they have evolved intelligence like we have? Would there be dinosaur cities, and cars and planes driven and flown by smart dinosaurs? That’d be cool.

He opens the drawer in his bedside table and grabs his phone and combination knife, saw, compass, fishing line and matches. Come on, he says heading for the door. Let’s go find a dinosaur bone.

Wagging her tail, Sally trots after her favourite human.

Two

An end

Can we have hot dogs for lunch?" Rose, Eric's just-turned-seven-year-old sister, asks as the car heads east out of Calgary.

I don't know, Eric’s mother says uncertainly. They're not good for you.

Oh, Pleeeeeeeeeeeease,Rose begs.

They don't have them often, Eric's father says. I doubt if the occasional one will do too much harm.

Eric hopes Rose gets her way. He isn’t a big