Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Animals, Scientists, Naturalists & Engineers - Biography

Barnum Brown: Dinosaur Hunter

Name: Barnum Brown: Dinosaur Hunter
Author: David Sheldon
ISBN: 9780802796028

by David Sheldon

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Overview

Barnum Brown had one ambition as a child: to grow up to be a great dinosaur hunter. And that's just what he did when he was hired by the American Natural History Museum—working to build their astounding collection.

Barnum had a knack for finding dinosaur bones, a skill that rivaled the paleontologists before him. His most amazing discovery was uncovering the largest carnivore that ever walked the earth: the "tyrant lizard king," Tyrannosaurus Rex!

Dig into the life of the greatest dinosaur hunter of all time with this exciting biography of Barnum Brown—the best noses in the business for sniffing out dinosaur bones.

Synopsis

Dig into the life of the greatest dinosaur hunter of all time with this exciting biography of Barnum Brown—the best noses in the business for sniffing out dinosaur bones.

Children's Literature

David Sheldon begins the story of the dinosaur enthusiast Barnum Brown with his childhood, with him searching for fossils, enthralled by the accounts of new discoveries, beginning with the Great Dinosaur Rush of 1877. Eager to explore and study dinosaurs, Barnum begins looking for dinosaur fossils out in the "badlands" of the United States and Canada for Henry Osborn, the director of the American Museum of Natural History. With difficulty, in inhospitable sites, Barnum finds and sends to Osborn many extraordinary bones and fossils. Sheldon vividly describes the frantic competition at that time to find the newest dinosaur discoveries. Barnum's triumph is his uncovering in 1902 of the amazing Tyrannosaurus Rex. Barnum's group and that of the Canadian Sternbergs together help create "one of the world's richest collections of dinosaurs." The India ink, gouache, and acrylic paintings visualize the events and the assembled creatures more as groups of snapshots than as an active sequence. There are scenes, mainly double-page spreads, of Barnum's youthful interest, but mainly of his quest out west in the dry, brown, rocky, empty spaces. Sometimes the dinosaurs he might be imagining seem to appear as living creatures while he digs their bones. Notes add additional information, along with a resource guide.

About the Author, David Sheldon

David Sheldon has illustrated numerous books, but this is his first time as author and illustrator. On the subject of Barnum he says that, "Like a lot of kids, the first dinosaur to capture my imagination was Tyrannosaurus Rex. But it never occurred to me that someone had actually discovered the fearsome beast! It has been a real thrill to unearth Barnum Brown's story and learn of his legacy." David lives in Brooklyn, New York, with wife Margit, their children, William, Sarah, and Christopher, and a very large cast of a dinosaur track!

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Editorials

Children's Literature - Ken Marantz

School Library Journal

Gr 1-3-Working for the American Museum of Natural History, Brown became a leading paleontologist during the late 1800s, eventually discovering the first nearly complete Tyrannosaurus Rex specimen. Moving from his childhood through his career, the narrative conveys the excitement of dinosaur discoveries, along with some of the hard work involved. The focus is more on the man's work than on his personality, but readers learn about his preference for dressing stylishly, even in the field, and get a sense of his energy and commitment. Ink, gouache, and acrylic illustrations effectively support the text. Evocative images of dinosaurs in the background complement the sharply drawn foreground figures on several spreads. A couple of these dinosaurs cleverly mirror the posture of Brown at work, and one particularly effective scene shows the paleontologist examining T. Rex fossil teeth while an imagined version of the dinosaur peeks mischievously over his shoulder. An author's note fills in some of the details of the work of Brown and other early dinosaur hunters. More informative than Jane Kurtz's Mister Bones: Dinosaur Hunter (S & S, 2004) and more engaging than Brooke Hartzog's Tyrannosaurus Rex and Barnum Brown (Rosen, 1998), this is a fun picture-book biography of a historical figure with strong child appeal.-Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, OR Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

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)