Best children encyclopedia according to redditors

This is probably your best bet. There is a lot of literature out there on this, but just to name a few sources:

UCMP Berkley has a pretty decent overview.

If you can get a hold of it at your local library, The Dinosaur Heresies by Robert T. Bakker helped popularize the notion, and his prescience may help you out a bit. It's dated, but the chapter on dinosaur-bird similarities holds up pretty well today.

Tom Holtz's Dinosaurs has a couple chapters detailing metabolism and bird evolution that should pretty useful.

Finally, there are a lot of paleontology blogs out there written by working paleontologists that talk about this subject in great depth. Use Dave Hone's Archosaur Musings as a starting point then search for your desired subject using the search box, and for more simply check out the links to the right of the page to go to other fairly reputable sites.

Happy homework!

My favorite book is definitely Dr. Holtz's Dinosaur Encyclopedia; it's geared towards a high school level, but I know professional paleontologists who use it, it's just an awesome book.

The next step up is The Complete Dinosaur. It's a solid book, technical, but not as highly praised as ...

The Dinosauria

The Dinosauria is the gold standard, but it's incredibly dense. My best suggestion though is to read primary literature about subjects/clades that interest you. Google scholar is pretty useful for this, although paywalls will be an issue off-campus

A bit more suitable for younger audiences might be Tom Holtz's Dinosaurs, which is pretty nice (albeit slightly out of date).

EDIT: other recommendation would be Greg Paul's Field Guide.

Last time I asked this question I was directed to this:

https://www.amazon.com/Dinosaurs-Complete-Up-Date-Encyclopedia/dp/0375824197

It's a 2007 publication...there may be something more modern out there now. But it seems really informative and comprehensive to me.

I've really enjoyed Dinosaurs by Dr. Holtz et al., especially because the authors do their best to publish free supplementary material & corrections online.

Mr. Rey's Illustrations aren't everyone's cup of tea, though.

I use to bring a book about dinosaurs to school every day. Something like this. I read whatever version I had cover to cover hundreds of times.

A couple books I can give off the top of my head that I have would be

1. The Complete Guide to Prehistoric Life by Tim Haines, it's basically a field guide to all of the prehistoric life in the BBC dinosaur shows
   
   
2. A Field Guide to Dinosaurs: The Essential Handbook for Travelers in the Mesozoic by Henry Gee with illustrations by Luis V. Rey is one of my personal favorites and is a really cool field guide with great drawings and a really updated assortment of dinosaurs. Big recommendation on this one!
   
   
3. Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages by Dr. Thomas R. Holtz Jr. and more illustrations by Luis V. Rey (easily one of the best dino artists ever) is also sick and worth the mention just as much
   
   Also
   
   
4. [Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs : The Definitive Pop-Up] (https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Prehistorica-Dinosaurs-Definitive-Pop-Up/dp/0763622281/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8) and Encyclopedia Prehistorica: Sharks and Other Sea Monsters are the best pop up books I've ever read and are so multi-layered, colorful and impressively informative, the perfect ting for a coffee table book to show people
   
   I just realized you didn't really ask for dinosaur books but more future animals field guides, not really sure why I did that lmaoo still check those out

This book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0375824197?ie=UTF8&tag=laelaps-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0375824197

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The author, Tom Holtz, is honestly one of the most enthusiastic people in the field and this is a book that can grow with your son.

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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142411930?ie=UTF8&tag=laelaps-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0142411930

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This one is aimed at slightly younger audiences (squarely at the 8 year old demographic, actually) and is full of the sorts of facts and stuff that kids love to trot out when talking to grownups.

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Another thing I would recommend is, before you go to the museum, try get in touch with the curators or somebody in charge of outreach programs. We're all busy people but most of us are willing to take a moment out of our day to show a kid around behind the scenes, and if there's an active docent program at the museum you can also get a special tour of front of house stuff too.

I have been. I have a hefty book about dinosaurs that I'm trying to read but I haven't been able to get past the first page. It's this book

How about this one?

I don't know if there's a newer edition available, 2007 seems awfully old in this field. :D

I still need to grab that one! The other standard is Dinosaurs

I'm in the same boat as you and have been researching on Amazon. So far I've come up with:

http://www.amazon.com/Princeton-Field-Guide-Dinosaurs-Guides/dp/069113720X

http://www.amazon.com/Dinosaurs-Prehistoric-Animals-Smithsonian-Handbooks/dp/0789493616/

http://www.amazon.com/Dinosaurs-Complete-Up-Date-Encyclopedia/dp/0375824197/

http://www.amazon.com/Dinosaurs-Concise-Natural-David-Fastovsky/dp/052171902X/