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4.5 STARS "The view we are now getting of the past by discovery of fossil animals and plants makes the present world ever new to us... a little window for a world of imagination." -- Earl Douglass This book begins with an introduction to the "Bone Wars" of the latter part of the 1800s, in which the country's most famous paleontologists (Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsch) battled it out to find the best dinosaur fossils. In their "quest for glory", Cope classified and named fifty-six different species of dinosaurs and Marsh is credited with sixty-eight. However, they sometimes stooped to underhanded methods (such as spying and bribery or hijacking fossil shipments!) and failed to properly document some fossils so that the skeletons sometimes had the wrong head on the wrong body, etc. Still, their creations helped fuel the dino-mania and when Andrew Carnegie was drawn into the craze, he built a huge exhibit hall at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, PA and sent Earl Douglass into Utah in 1907 to find him "something big." The heart of the story is Douglass, whose unassuming passion for true discovery (as opposed to personal glory) is certainly endearing. (How cute is that photo of him on the back cover next to his famous discoveries!?) The repeated hardships, the long days of searching without reward (and the long winter he spent in canvas lean-tos with his wife and baby son!) convey the dedication he had to his work. On August 17, 1909, he found an almost complete skeleton of Apatosaurus, one of the largest dinosaurs to ever roam the earth. Yes, Mr. Carnegie, he found something big! My enjoyment of this book was heightened because, like many kids, I was obsessed with dinosaurs in my youth! I still have a lingering fascination and fondness for the subject so this book couldn't help but delight. Ray includes so many details in her story and the accompanying illustrations, quotes and maps. This might not be the best introduction to dinosaurs or paleontology for young kids, but for older children (or adults!) interested in the early days of dino discovery, this is highly recommended! As a little aside, I was fortunate enough to fulfill my childhood dream when my family visited Dinosaur National Monument and I was able to see the quarry where so many (over 1500!) dinosaur bones are scattered in the rock face, exactly as they were deposited in the Jurassic period. It was truly an amazing place! I was saddened to learn, in Kogan Ray's afterward, that the Quarry Visitor's Center was closed in 2006 due to safety hazards. I checked the website and it is scheduled to reopen this October. (http://www.nps.gov/dino/index.htm) I hope that is the case and that many young (and young-at-heart) dino enthusiasts will again be able to experience this remarkable place and marvel as Douglass and countless others have done through the past one hundred and two years. For another stellar book about the early days of dinosaur discovery, readers might want to check out The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins: An Illuminating History of Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, Artist and Lecturer or one of the many picture book biographies of Mary Anning.

2022-11-14 13:30