BARNUM BROWN: DINOSAUR HUNTER

Paying tribute to the renowned paleontologist who discovered T. Rex, Sheldon pairs a simply written text rich in specific detail to painted scenes of spectral prehistoric beasts rearing up behind a nerdy, dapper gent who is, usually, standing in some dusty locale and staring distractedly through wire-rimmed glasses at likely looking rock formations. Sometimes working in direct competition with rival teams of dinosaur hunters, Brown had a legendary ability to look in the right places, and not only did he make many important discoveries, but in the course of a 66-year career, he founded the unique fossil dinosaur collections at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. Readers of Jane Kurtz’s easy-reader, Mr. Bones, Dinosaur Hunter (2004), will find more background here about Brown and the late 19th- and early 20th-century “bone wars,” as well as a fine gallery of toothy fossils and fleshed out reconstructions. Meaty afterword too, plus address and reading lists. (Picture book/biography. 5-8)