Inspiring Young Paleontologists

It’s Wednesday and that means non-fiction picture book day. When I manage to get myself organized, I try to participate in this great link-up of resources organized by Alyson Beecher of Kid Lit Freenzy.

This week, I’m sharing the book How the Dinosaur Got to the Museum. In this book, acclaimed author/illustrator Jessie Hartland presents the fascinating 145-million-year journey of a dinsoaur: a Diplodocus longus, from its discovery in 1923 in Utah to its arrival in the hallowed halls of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Many of us have been to large science museums and seen dinosaur bones taking up large spaces. But how did they get there? That’s what this book aims to explain to children in a style that is similar to “this is the house that Jack built.” This allows Hartland to take a very complicated process and makes it simple for a child to understand.

Hartland starts the book out with a lot of factual information about the mighty Diplodocus who lived millions of years ago. The dinosaurs died during torrential flooding and their bones were buried deeper and deeper under layers of sand and silt. The world continues to move around them and 145 million years later, the diplodocus and the ancient river bed is finally exposed.

After the initial information dump, we then get into the story of how the dinosaur’s bones were found. First the Dinosaur Hunter got involved, then he called the Paleontologist, who brought in the Excavators and so on and so forth until the skeleton is put together back at the museum and put on display so that people can come and visit it and learn about animals that lived so many years ago.

I thought this was a great way to explain something to children that seems so complicated. Now, whenever we see a dinosaur skeleton at a museum, we will have a much better idea of all of the steps involved to bring it there and all of the people involved.

Like many  great non-fiction picture books, this book also features a great spread of dinosaur information at the back of the book for young minds who want to delve a little deeper.

Jessie Hartland has actually written 3 books in the series of how things got to the museum. She also illustrated a book on Ada Lovelace that is coming out in October that I can’t wait to check out.