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Somehow I thought this was a picture book, and it is, but it's also a chapter book, so full of wonderful information about the men and one woman who dedicated their lives to figuring out the earth's genesis. It took a while, but Ian Lendler's style is pure storytelling. When I read, I felt he was sitting right beside me, explaining, telling about the places and people who kept exploring, ignored their discomfort in learning what those "creatures" found in rocks were. How did they get there?
The early conflict with those who believed the Bible to be the definitive answer was explained, but it took a century and more! Much focused on the British Isles, often the area of Lyme Regis, England, though other countries contributed to the knowledge like France. I imagine there could be a history of paleontology efforts from all over the world, but Lendler focused on the very beginnings. These years were when the term "geology" was first used. These are the years when megalosaurus received a name, became "The First Dinosaur". Finally, these end with the years that Darwin put forth his theory of evolution. Aside from Darwin, the only scientist whose story I knew was Mary Anning, a young woman who was entranced by her discoveries, found the only "whole" fossil. In fact, she found three! She excavated, cleaned, and illustrated her plesiosaur, but was never recognized by any group. She was a woman. Some of the men also with great knowledge were her friends and helped her as she struggled with poverty, but the relatively new Geologic Society did not admit its first woman until 1904.You will want to read Mary's story as well as the fascinating other scientists who strove to find answers to earth's history. Some were poor, some aristocrats, all passionate.
Lendler fills his book fascinating stories of those scientists who, good people or bad, persisted to find answers. Within this story, C.M. Butzer adds many kinds of illustrations, some brought from that time long ago, some created, some comical. Added is an Epilogue, a bibliography, Acknowledgments, Credits, and an index at the back. I enjoyed the book thoroughly.
Winner of the 2020 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal
A 2020 American Indian Youth Literature Picture Book Honor Winner
There's a long list of different awards you can read here! Finally, I had the pleasure of reading this book! I thought it was only a story celebrating a special food loved by Native Americans, but Kevin Noble Maillard shows it is so much more. And I connected this to other foods from other people, wondering what they might choose, what they might say about their special food, or would they be disappointed that they do not have one?
Maillard's text feels like a poem defining this thing called "Fry Bread", writing the words with a bit of text added: "Fry Bread is History -- The long walk, the stolen land/Strangers in our world/With unknown food/We made new recipes/From what we had." It is also "flavor", "nation", "time", and other words, too. And in the backmatter, Maillard offers a recipe and a 'how-to', plus an extensive author's note explaining even more about those words, including a bit about Juana Martinez-Neal's illustrations within each part. There are also references and notes. The illustrations by Juana Martinez-Neal (Alma and How She Got Her Name and La Princesa and the Pea) bring readers into the happiest family pictures, babies, toddlers, some older kids; moms and dads, grandparents, too. Each painting glows with happy people together, sometimes making fry bread, sometimes gathering to be together, cats and dogs included, too. The highlight continues to surround everyone -- with fry bread!