Sticks N Stones N Dinosaur Bones: rhyming fun for dino kids

Kids love dinosaurs.  The funny thing about being a parent is that you start to love them again too.  You remember how to pronounce the names, the silent “P” in Pteranodon for example and how much they really stretch the imagination.  Sticks N Stones N Dinosaur Bones is a slightly historical take on the Bone Wars in the 1870’s.  It’s a fact based children’s book, with just enough whimsy and tall tails to make kids dream of dinosaurs and the men who chased their bones.

Another way of looking at Sticks n Stones n Dinosaur Bones is to imagine Dr. Seuss doing a children’s book on medicine.  The book would have the same silly illustrations, but would include medical terms, diagnosis or other real world lessons that young people could learn.  Sticks n Stones is just like that, except geared towards paleontology and the Bone Wars that occurred during the hunt for major fossils.

In college I wanted to be an archeologist.  Actually I wanted to be an archeologist for a semester until I realized that the job didn’t involve traveling the world with my whip, being shot at and exploring tombs all the time.  The story of the bone wars was familiar to me and is told in a very child friendly and succinct form in the book.

Around 1870 dinosaur bones were earning big money and bigger respect.  Two professors, Edward D. Cope and O. Charles Marsh were dispatched from two different universities to head west and find dinosaur bones.  Cope headed to Colorado while Marsh went to Nebraska.  Modern readers only need to know the basic geology of both areas to know which one was more successful in finding bones.

Even though one of them certainly found more bones and dinosaur species, they both deserve credit for bringing paleontology to popularity.  What Sticks n Stones does well is show the arrogance, vanity and pride (to a fault) that both men had in constantly trying to one up the other.

How much of their story is true?  The super silly parts are plain to see, but the bulk of the book is probably true to be.  If you haven’t read a rhyme in a while,  it may take a moment for your thoughts to compile-the point and story the book will imply.

The downside to Sticks n Stones is it may be too long by a page or two or parents who may too dog gone tired.  At the end of the day to read this book and to sing and to play.  But for those parents with children who love Dinosaur Train, that pine for stories of Trinisaura or simply for silly stories  that rhyme then Sticks n Stones n Dinosaur Bones will suit them just fine.