Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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La Brea Tar Pits: The Undercover investigation

Stuck! The Story of La Brea Tar Pits by Joyce Uglow

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While the text was a bit academic, it also has some poetic tone to the writing of Stuck! The Story of La Brea Tar Pits. Joyce Uglow presents the theme of death in the tar pit in a tasteful manner. Overall things are well done, educational and adapted for multiple ages. Perhaps it is not the “best book ever,”  but it is a solid science book. Uglow and Valerya Milovanova (the illustrator) created a younger looking (at first glance) story about how things over the […]

She found dinosaurs in her backyard

A Dinosaur Named Ruth: How Ruth Mason Discovered Fossils in Her Own Backyard by Julia Lyon

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I do not know if I would call a dinosaur Ruth, but since Ruth Mason discovered so many of them, I guess one named Ruth is not so bad. And in A Dinosaur Named Ruth: How Ruth Mason Discovered Fossils in Her Own Backyard we see how she found so many goodies that would make up Ruth and many many more dinosaurs. It was 1905 and a girl named Ruth found strange rocks on her family’s land. Over the years, she keeps finding more, but […]

Roar! We are But a Speck in Time

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs by Steve Brusatte

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Tell me I’m not alone: sometimes I’m sitting somewhere, minding my own business, when the thought intrudes, “I can’t believe that dinosaurs were real.” It just seems so impossible. Surely they are made-up movie creatures. How can such amazing beings have once roamed (and dominated) the world? Well, Steve Brusatte’s The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of Their Lost World tells you all about it. And I loved every second of it. Beware: this book will give you an existential crisis […]

Women in science, 19th century edition

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

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I’m on a roll with splendid historical fiction featuring strong female characters. What I didn’t know until I was about half-way through this novel is that Tracy Chevalier’s Remarkable Creatures is based on real women in science about whom I’d never heard. I suppose I should say “real women on the outskirts of science” because, as females, they were barred from having a meaningful place in scientific discussions in 19th century England. Mary Anning, now recognized as the finder of the first known ichthyosaur skeleton […]

“Got a whale of a tale to tell ya, lads A whale of a tale or two…”

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I have one word for Charlotte’s Bones: The Beluga Whale in a Farmer’s Field by Erin Rounds (and illustrations by Allison Carver), “WOW” But I guess I better expand by saying this is a great book for kids that are into science or a fun way to introduce natural science to all ages. It is told from the point of view of an all-knowing narrator that knows what is happening to the beluga whale, later to be known as Charlotte. She was caught 11,000 years […]



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