Review by Booklist Review
Ages 5^-8, older for reading alone. Anholt has found a wonderfully fresh topic for a book--the story of Mary Anning, a young British fossil hunter who in the early nineteenth century found a "sea monster," an ichthyosaur skeleton. Anholt personalizes the story by beginning with Mary's father introducing her to the "curiosities" found in the soft cliffs of Lyme Regis in Dorset. After her father's death, Mary collected and sold the curiosities to help support her family. It was only when a scientist, Annie Philpot, explained the concept of fossils to Mary that she knew what she was collecting. It was then that she decided to look for the "sea monster" fossil that Annie Philpot said would be so prized. At age 12, she found it in the limestone cliffs, a skeleton more than 165 million years old. The author's note details and adds more information about Mary's story, though it might have been nice to know whether Anholt embroidered the facts in any way. Moxley's artwork is marvelously inventive; the spreads are drenched in the colors of the shore and sea and are framed in cliffs and water. Using a folk art^-style, Moxley adroitly combines visions of a prehistoric past with young Mary's present as she climbs, collects, and discovers. Although this works well as biography and history, it is also a fine piece of storytelling. --Ilene Cooper
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Anholt's cumbersome and text-laden story centers on the early years of Mary Anning, born in 1799 and known in her native England for her discovery of ancient fossils. From the moment that her beloved father, nicknamed "Pepper" for his "speckled beard," extracts a "snakestone" (a fossil of a snake) from the clay cliffs near their seaside home, Mary spends her days searching alone for similar "curiosities," while peers taunt her with the titular nickname. Soon after her father dies, Mary discovers a dog (with a coat like "speckled pepper") near his grave. Encouraged by the Philpot sisters, local scientists, the mournful girl continues to collect fossils and searches for the giant sea monster's bones, which, legend has it, lay hidden in the cliffs. Her devoted pet leads his young mistress to the skeleton of this ichthyosaur, then vanishes. As with the death of Mary's father, the text glosses over the dog's disappearance, but readers will likely see it as a shadow cast over the discovery and marking another significant loss in young Mary's life. Moxley's (Skip Across the Ocean) vividly hued, primitivist artwork features some creatively skewed perspectives as well as several potentially disturbing images: a farmhouse teeters on the edge of eroding cliffs, while nearby are half-submerged cows and a person apparently gesturing in distress. Anholt convincingly lays the groundwork for Anning to go on to become a noted scientist and local hero, but youngsters will likely find this account of her childhood sad rather than celebratory. Ages 5-9. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 1-4-Mary Anning, born in England in 1799, made an astounding discovery at the age of 12 when she unearthed the first full skeleton of an ichthyosaur in the cliffs above her home in Lyme Regis. Anholt begins his picture-book biography with a dramatic episode in which baby Mary is said to have been struck by lightning. The well-shaped, fictionalized account creates a cozy view of her relationship with her father, who taught her to recognize the many forms of fossils in the crumbly Dorset cliffs before his death when she was perhaps 10 or 11. A mysterious, small dog Mary finds in the cemetery becomes the agent in finding the enormous fossil. Two wealthy women, allegedly scientists, tutor Mary as she develops a small business selling fossils as curiosities to tourists. Pleasing folk-art views spread across the pages in luscious blues and greens, magenta, and pumpkin, following the plucky child's odyssey that led to her lifelong contribution to paleontology. Children will be attracted by the jacket view of dinosaurs climbing the path through the cliffs below Mary. Picture bands bordering one side or the other of most pages handsomely unify each spread. The substantial text reads aloud well. The author provides a short closing note on Anning's place in science and also claims that she is the inspiration of the traditional rhyme "she sells seashells by the seashore." No attributions of factual material are provided.-Margaret Bush, Simmons College, Boston (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This freely fictionalized account tells about the girl who was responsible for the excavation of a fossilized ichthyosaur from a seaside location in England in the early 1800s. A short note adds that during her lifetime, Anning made a number of other significant fossil discoveries. The illustrations, in rich shades of blue, blue-green, and purple, feature some interesting compositions. Unfortunately, no sources are provided. From HORN BOOK Fall 1999, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
To the true story of Mary Anning, a pre-Darwin fossil hunter who made a major discovery at the age of 11, Anholt adds a folklorish spin. Derided by other children and set apart by surviving a bolt of lightning, Mary assembles such an impressive collection of ``snakestones'' and ``curiosities'' from the clay cliffs around her Dorset village that two female scientists take her under their wings. Later, after the death of her father, known as ``Pepper'' for his speckled beard, she meets a similarly speckled dog, who becomes her constant companion and, before disappearing, leads her to a giant, spectacular marine fossil. Tumbling cottages and spectral dinosaurs across a crumpled landscape, combining swirls of vivid color with disparate perspectives, Moxley creates a hectic, feverish visual rhythm for the tale, but anchors her scenes with Mary's small, solid figure, in no-nonsense braids and brown shift. A tale that is frequently, and more conventionally, told elsewhere, it lends itself well to such an atmospheric, crackling rendition. (Picture book/nonfiction. 7-9)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
