Review: Sticks 'n Stones 'n Dinosaur Bones

Sticks 'n Stones 'n Dinosaur Bones by Ted Enik
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book through Net Galley, in exchange for an honest review.

I’m always interested in children’s books which encourage children to read about science. And so, I was predisposed to liking a book about dinosaurs, since dinosaurs, and evolution, are such a sticky topic in recent times in the US. Providing kids with information about paleontology and the ages of dinosaur skeletons is so important.

While this book seeks to make children enjoy the topic of the famous paleontology Bone Wars of the latter half of the 1800’s, I’m concerned that their emphasis on Cope and Marsh’s overblown claims may fan the flames of dinosaur and evolution doubters by emphasizing what these men did wrong instead of the many things they did right. After all, Marsh was a respected member of the National Academy of Sciences, and both scientists, without the aid of modern techniques, would have been unable to discern species that should be consolidated any more than a person could predict, without modern methods, that the remains of a tadpole were the same species as the remains of a frog.

This is a nicely illustrated book with a rhyming structure. I just hope emphasis is placed on the end pages- what these two men gave us in terms of paleontological science.

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