Fossil Fever (Road to Reading)

Jeff knows exactly what he wants to do on his summer vacation: hunt for dinosaur fossils in the Sahara Desert with Uncle Roy and his crew. He thinks it will be nonstop action, but as his field journal reveals, fossil hunting is not the exciting adventure he thought it would be: "All these days and not a fossil in sight. Nothing, nothing but sand." Then Jeff trips over a rock, and to everyone's surprise and delight, Uncle Roy declares the rock to be the "distal end of a femur." The rest is history, for as the author's note reveals, the story is a fictionalized version of the real discovery by a University of Chicago professor. The subject's popularity, and Paulette Bogan's colorful cartoon-style illustrations will attract beginning readers to this Road to Reading First Chapter Book. Primary-grade classrooms could use this in conjunction with a unit on dinosaurs since lots of good information is sprinkled throughout the six short chapters. Lauren Peterson
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Grade 2-3-Six brief chapters relate the adventures of Jeff and his uncle as they travel to the Sahara on a quest for dinosaur fossils. A long plane ride and five days of driving test Jeff's patience (and sometimes readers', as well). After the crew finally sets up camp in the town of In Gall, there is more waiting. Finally, on the 13th day, they discover an important fossil that turns out to be part of an unknown meat eater. Though the text lacks panache, it offers digestible facts and manageable vocabulary for beginning readers. At times the plot is unrealistic and contrived, but it is easy to follow. Pages from Jeff's field journal and bright cartoon drawings add to the book's appeal. An acceptable addition for libraries building their easy chapter-book collections, and for those in which budding paleontologists routinely deplete the supply of dinosaur books.
Holly T. Sneeringer, St. Mark School, Baltimore, MD
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