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  • Barnum's Bones: How Barnum Brown Discovered the Most Famous Dinosaur in the World
  • Elizabeth Bush
Fern, Tracey . Barnum's Bones: How Barnum Brown Discovered the Most Famous Dinosaur in the World; illus. by Boris Kulikov. Ferguson/Farrar, 2012. [40p]. ISBN 978-0-374-30516-1 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R 7-9 yrs.

Should Gallup choose to poll primary schoolers on their favorite dinosaur, bet your last dollar on the winner being Tyrannosaurus rex. Why, then, has its discoverer, Barnum Brown, not enjoyed more fame among legions of dino fans? Fern redresses this oversight with an appealing picture-book account of the dapper Mr. Brown (who often went digging in his suit) from his early years annoying his mother with his crates of specimens (Mom banished them to the laundry house) to his career prospecting for bones for Professor Henry Osborn of New York's American Museum of Natural History. Brown became known both for the sheer quantity of bones he bagged and for the novelty of his discoveries, particularly enough T. rex parts to reconstruct most of a complete skeleton. Kulikov's take on Brown's exploits is playful and imaginative, catching Brown from tipsy perspectives as he dashes across continents with bones precariously in tow, and is roundly acclaimed by bug-eyed, gape-mouthed admirers, human and equine. A double-page spread of T. rex on museum display shows the bones positioned in a horizontal stance that was not understood during Brown's time—a glitch that can be pleasantly addressed by pairing this title with Kathleen Kudlinski's Boy, Were We Wrong about Dinosaurs! (BCCB 1/06) An author's note and selected bibliography are included.

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