Dinosaur Lady by Linda Skeers
Illustrated by Marta Alvarez Miguens
Published by Sourcebooks Kids
Date: July 2020
I remember when my nephew was really little and how much he loved dinosaurs and declared that he was going to be a paleontologist, at the time this would have been the perfect book for him and I feel like many budding paleontologists will love this book.
Bodly, Mary chipped away…and uncovered ribs.
Vertebrae.
Flippers!
Dinosaur Lady by Linda Skeers celebrates Mary Anning and her skills in what we come to learn throughout the book as being very much a man’s world. What starts as Mary’s hobby soon becomes what keeps Mary’s family fed and clothed after her father dies. Her finds have shaped the world of paleontology and she continued to spend her life dedicated to finding fossils and sharing them with the world.
I find that non-fiction content that reads like fiction is quite engaging for children and hooks them into the story. The timeline and definitions at the end of the book is the icing on the cake and give the reader a lot of interesting information in a different form and help them understand what the terms are that they discovered throughout the book.
I like that Linda didn’t avoid the sexism that was evident during the time and I feel that she wrote about it tactfully and respectfully. I like that regardless of the sexisim that Mary continued to work at discovering fossils and this is great for children to see that regardless of what they come up against they just need to keep going.
I think this is a fantastic book and will make a wondering addition to any child’s library.
Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Kids for the opprotunity to read and honestly review this book.
Little Big Reads 