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Bones Rock!
Cover Bones Rock!
Author: Peter Larson and Kristin Donnan
Publisher: Invisible Cities Press
Product: Book (204 Pages)
Ages: 9and up
Cost: $29.95

If you really, really want to become a palaeontologist, read this book. In seven chapters you’ll learn everything you need to know from T. rex expert palaeontologist Peter Larson.

Sprinkled with photos, diagrams, and fun illustrations, Bones Rock! takes you through the life of scientists like Larson. Using examples, such as finding the world’s biggest T. rex remains, the book tells you how you begin a fossil quest, how to dig, how to keep records, how to clean fossils, how to develop your own theories—the list is exhaustive. This is a meaty text packed with information.

Danielle de Carle

Reviewer: Kirsten Petersen
Age: 12

Wow, what a ride! I mean, read. When I first saw the cover, the photo was attention grabbing, but not realistic. The “Teachers Guide Included” notation on the cover frightened me! The list of what the book included made it look a bit like a how-to manual, which it most certainly wasn’t, or at least not your boring, typical one.

I’m not a big fan of palaeontology, I much prefer archaeology, but anything slightly older than my Grandma will do. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the digs that turned scientific theories around, as well as figuring out how dinosaurs moved from skeletal remains.

The introduction of the book was a bit weak. It was almost like speech attempts that start off, “Hi, my name is _____. Today I would like to talk about _____.” That’s the only part I would change. However, once into the content of the book, everything flowed much better.

Since I don’t read much on palaeontology, this book was full of information I did not know. Intricate details like the Triceratops Two Step, or any number of squabbles among palaeontologists were scandalously fun.

While I was reading the book, my family and I were crammed in an over-packed car for a long trip, so it was read the book or die of chronic-boredom-syndrome. Lucky for me the book was very entertaining.

The photos in the book were just amazing. There was literally a wonderful picture for every tiny detail. Out of 10, I’d say the book is an 8. Overall, Bones Rock! is just what its title decrees: it rocks.


(Originally published in the May/June 2005 issue of YES Mag.)


Copyright © 2005 Peter Piper Publishing Inc.
Last updated July 4, 2005.