There is a little bit of everything in the books about Jurassic Park III. Some good, some bad. The novel bites - and not in a good dino way either. But the Field Guide rocks!
Jurassic Park III Junior Novel
Adapted by Scott Ciencin
Based on the motion picture screenplay by Peter Buchman
RESTRICTED AREA. STOP! DO NOT PROCEED! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
I really should have listened but I thought they were warning me to stay away from deadly dinosaurs, not the dead, boring book! And not just boring but "it be badly written" as well. There are times when I swear the guy who adapted the story (Scott Ciencin - praised by Science Fiction Review as "one of today's finest fantasy writers") stepped out during the screening to take a wiz or snag a Butterfinger, and didn't bother to ask if he missed anything. The note to parents inside says that this book is appropriate for ages 8 and up - it should say ages 8 to 8 1/2. If you feel the need to read a book based on a movie, please, please read John Whitman's decent The Mummy Returns. Oh yeah, and what the heck is a maw?
Jurassic Park III Junior Novel Rating: 
Jurassic Park III Movie Storybook
Adapted by Mark Cerasini.
Based on the motion picture screenplay by Peter Buchman.
Strangely, the Jurassic Park III Movie Storybook, which is meant for less mature readers (you know who you are,) is a much better ride. Somehow author Mark Cerasini gives us more background info than the JUNIOR NOVEL. Sure, it's jammed full of photos of really freaked people about to become Spinosaurus snacks but the story makes me want to see the movie. The Junior Novel doesn't.
Jurassic Park III Movie Storybook Rating:
Jurassic Park Institute Dinosaur Field Guide
Written by Dr. Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. and Dr. Michael Brett-Surman.
And finally, the Jurassic Park Institute Dinosaur Field Guide is perfect for all those fossil-fiends out there who just can't get enough of that extinct stuff. It has info on 100 deceased dino-creatures, many that I've never heard of like Muttaburrasaurus and Psittacosaurus. It's positively sticky with weights, sizes and fun facts - like how the book Bleak House, by Charles Dickens, begins with the author imagining a 40-foot-long Megalosaurus "waddling like an elephantine lizard" up a muddy street in London. Then there's trivia like how almost every dinosaur labeled "Albertasaurus" in a museum is really a Gorgosaurus!
The truly wacky thing about the field guide, is that it sort of apologizes for many of the genetically re-created dinosaurs that have appeared in the Jurassic Park books and movies like the frilled, poison-spitting Dilophosaurus and the six foot Velociraptor. But hey, the movies are all about fantasy, right? At least that's what my school councilor keeps telling me.
Jurassic Park Institute Dinosaur Field Guide Rating:
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