The first book in our Unhinged History series is a ripping yarn. Full of adventure and deceit, it brings to life the best-known 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, and bring glory to their home-base universities. Lively and witty rhymes plus wonderfully demented illustrations reveal how the paleontologists’ feud began, and how—despite their obsession with outdoing one another—Cope and Marsh nevertheless made genuine and lasting contributions to the field.
...an entertaining and distinctively illustrated romp of a story that I enjoyed thoroughly.
This is truly history made fun. The whimsical rhyme turns man's folly to laughable learning. Greed and misguided ambition are sneaky culprits that can disrupt the best of times. Competition between Edward Drinker Cope of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, and O. Charles Marsh of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale stirred quite a Bone War! Each paleontologist used less than ethical means to outdo the other, yet brought to the public the wonder of dinosaurs. The illustrations by G.F. Newland complement the great text so wonderfully, that it is a most entertaining lesson in (pre)historical events!
Illustrator G.F. Newland and Ted Enik have teamed up to write the “Unhinged History” series and this story is a whimsical tale. Newland’s illustrations are great – browns and tans dominate the pages which brings readers right into the story and makes them feel like they are part of the archeological digs. The clothing characters wear harkens back to older days and readers with observant eyes will be transported to the late 1800s.The writing is excellent. Enik tells the story of the rivalry in verse. Adults will find the saga just as fascinating as children. Two paleontologists, backed by their Universities, set off to find the biggest and best fossils in the West.
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