From School Library Journal:
Grade 4-6-A highly pictorial, fictionalized account of real scientific expeditions led by Roy Chapman Andrews. Under the aegis of the American Museum of Natural History, the goal of the Central Asiatic Expeditions was to discover evidence of human origin in the heart of Mongolia's Gobi Desert, and while no human/hominid fossils were found, what was discovered made global headlines. Floca has braided these marvelous adventures together, focusing on young George Olsen, a new assistant to the Chief Paleontologist, and his discovery of the first clutch of fossilized dinosaur eggs. The author seamlessly weaves events from several expeditions, adds some logical dialogue, and teams the result with bright, realistic watercolors to transport readers across space and time to the vast, arid Gobi and the startling Flaming Cliffs. While purists will carp at the m?lange of incidents and the fictional dialogue, this is a worthy introduction to the romantic era of fossil hunting. Ann Bausum's superb Dragon Bones and Dinosaur Eggs (National Geographic, 2000), Margery Facklam's excellent Tracking Dinosaurs in the Gobi (21st Century, 1997), and Mark Norell and Lowell Dingus's riveting A Nest of Dinosaurs (Doubleday, 1999) are all more scientific, but are for a slightly older audience.
Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist:
The picture-book format's sweeping, delicately detailed watercolor illustrations distinguish this from most dinosaur books. What's more, instead of focusing on the dinosaurs themselves, Floca tells the story behind the discovery that dinosaurs hatched from eggs. He introduces the three main explorers--Roy Chapman Andrews, Walter Granger, and George Olsen--on the title page, before continuing with an account of their 1922 expedition to Mongolia. The journey is amazingly smooth, aside from ruts in the trail that stop the cars. The men even manage to meet the 75-camel supply caravan, which left a month earlier than they did, within an hour of their arrival on site. The account has a fresh, affable tone, which Floca may have achieved, in part, by fictionalizing some of the elements, which he admits in an endnote. Although that makes it difficult to gauge how reliable this is as a source of information, it makes for an engaging adventure. Four Mongolian dinosaurs are described on the endpapers. Susan Dove Lempke
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