Sticks ’n Stones ’n Dinosaur Bones: Being a Whimsical “Take” on a (pre)Historical Event
Ted Enik , Illustrated by G. F. Newland
Schiffer
ISBN13: 9780764353949
$16.99

Next up in the 2017 PopCult Gift Guide we have a terrific gift for the young reader on your holiday shopping list. Sticks ’n Stones ’n Dinosaur Bones: Being a Whimsical “Take” on a (pre)Historical Event is the first book in a fun series, and it’s a really cute take on the early days of dinosaur fossil hunting.

This first book in the Unhinged History series is a ripping yarn, full of adventure and deceit, that brings to life the best-known public spat in all of paleontology: the bitter rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh. This frenzy of discovery and one-upmanship, known today as “the Bone Wars,” was a gold rush–like scramble to find the most and “best” dinosaur fossils, thus bringing to glory to their respective home-base universities. Lively and witty rhymes plus wonderfully demented illustrations reveal how the paleontologists’ infamous rivalry began, and how, despite making genuine and lasting contributions to the field, their mutual obsession with outdoing one another spun out of control.

Author Ted Enik has worked as an illustrator for most of the well-known New York publishing houses, applying his versatility to both original art as well as classic and current children’s book characters, including The Magic School Bus. Illustrator G. F. Newland’s doodles have made their way onto buttons, bags, posters, and T-shirts, and have been published by the likes of Scholastic, Hachette, and Pixel Mouse House.

Sticks ’n Stones ’n Dinosaur Bones is a great way to get five-to-eight year olds interested in reading, paleontology and the quirks of historical eccentricities. You should be able to order it from any bookseller using the ISBN number above, or get it directly from the publisher.