The Monster’s Bones (YA Edition) by David K. Randall
My mom loves to go on little adventures whenever possible. I love going with her. Recently, we went to a museum not too far from our hometown, and there were many exhibits featuring dinosaur bones. So naturally, I had to find some books about dinosaurs.
I always felt like I was a curious person, but then I read books about scientists and realized I am not all that observant. I have come across pretty rocks, and that is all that I think, “Oh, a pretty rock.” I am not looking to see where or when this rock is from or how it got there. I guess I am still curious. I do love to learn, but I just won’t be the one making new discoveries. As I was thinking about how I would never know if I was holding a rock or a fossil, the book gave me a hint! If you don’t know if you have a rock or a fossil, lick it. “The tip of the tongue briefly sticks to fossils yet will not stick to stone.” (pg. 30) I won’t be doing that, but it was really interesting!
This book begins with Barnum Brown’s childhood. He grew up on a farm but had to travel to Lawrence, Kansas, to attend high school and university. I thought it was funny that the book said he was distracted by “parties and pranks.” It was 1993. I need to hear about these parties and pranks.
There is a lot of information in this book. It touched on the Bone Wars between Marsh and Cope. I had heard a little about this before, but not much. I was shocked by how ridiculous these two men were. They were more obsessed with fame than they were with science. They caused more harm than good with their silly fights. At one point, the camps were throwing rocks at each other. That is so childish! I hope they were embarrassed at some point.
There were many people mentioned, but it was mostly about Barnum Brown and his work, traveling around the world in search of dinosaur bones. This man was awesome. He was more comfortable out traveling and searching for new fossils than being stuck in a classroom or an office. I liked how this book described paleontology as requiring both physical strength and intellectual skills. All I could think was “Oh! Sexy nerds!!” But Brown was an amazing person who seemed to just understand his job. He had a knack for knowing where to look when out on these digs.
The book also discussed a man named Henry Fairfield Osborn extensively. He would be almost the opposite of Brown. He was the president of the American Museum of Natural History. He spent most of his time in offices, raising money for the museum. I think there were a few times that he went out to dig sites, but he was clearly not comfortable out there and did not spend as much time as Brown did out in the elements. He also did not seem like a great person, mainly because he was always pushing his opinion about race and how he believed the white race was better, and even had a display in the museum showing this belief. He even praised Hitler’s view on racist eugenics principles. It was shocking to read about his beliefs. And even more shocking to think about how many schoolchildren and just people in general walked through that museum to see these views displayed as fact.
Ugh, moving on from Osborn and back to Brown and his dinosaurs! I loved hearing about the different dinosaurs people were finding. I think that would be so awesome to be alive at the time when these were being discovered. I would have been terrified of them! I also found myself having to look up photos of every single dinosaur mentioned. I was amazed at how adventurous Brown was. Admittedly, I don’t even like to camp, not even for one night, so I’m not the best to comment on this but wow, he was out on these digs for months! He was thinking about getting back out into the wild as soon as he was home. I could never. Not for me.
I might have to go down a rabbit hole of looking up as many dinosaurs as possible because I heard that some people believe, “What is your favorite dinosaur?” is a good dinner conversation question or first date “get to know you” question. So, I’d better figure this out!
So, what is your favorite dinosaur?
Four Out of Five Magical Coffee Cups
Literary Coffee 