Big Old Bones: A Dinosaur Tale - Hardcover

Carol Carrick has written more than twenty-five well-received books for Clarion, including PATRICK'S DINOSAURS, one of the many books illustrated by her late husband, Donald Carrick. She lives in West Tisbury, Massachusetts.

Grade 2-4-- Fossilized dinosaur bones are like pieces to a puzzle, and scientists have not always put the puzzle together correctly. The Carricks' beautifully illustrated new book concerns a fictitious paleontologist, Professor Potts, and his struggles to construct a dinosaur from unidentified fossilized bones. First he builds a Tricerotops, then a Tyrannosaurus Rex, then a Brontosaurus; but all of his constructions seem to him too incredulous to have really lived. Finally, he combines all of the bones into one creature with the help of his wife, who sews a patchwork skin for it. He then presents his discovery to the world as a "Tribrontosaurus Rex." Carrick adds a helpful follow-up note explaining that although her tale is fictitious, its premise is true. She gives examples of paleontological "goofs"--the Iguanodon whose thumb was thought to be a nose horn, the Brontosaurus with the wrong head. Carrick's premise is all well and good; it's the implied snappy resolve which never materializes. Potts' imaginary construction is no more or less amazing than the real dinosaurs he constructs, and one wonders why he settles for the creature that he did. There's not enough outrageousness to make the final revelation of the creature truly astonishing. As it is, the concept the author wants to convey works, but the story's ending packs no punch. --Cathryn A. Camper, Minneapolis Public Library
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.