Next month marks the release of the newest film in the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the original film. Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World are both based on novels by the late Michael Crichton, whose first foray into the world of dinosaurs – the novel Dragon Teeth (2017; 295 pages) – was published posthumously just last year. Set in 1876, Dragon Teeth tells the story of the well-to-do William Johnson who takes a bet with a colleague at Yale that he couldn’t survive a summer in the American West with renowned paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh. Johnson gets a job as a photographer for the expedition but soon learns that Marsh’s nemesis – paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope – and his gang are on their trail. When Marsh suspects he is one of Cope’s spies, Johnson finds himself alone and friendless in the Wild West and when he makes a paleontological discovery of his own he discovers that getting home with the prize alive might be more difficult than he imagined!
Cope and Marsh were two real paleontologists whose fierce and sometimes violent rivalry was just as outrageous as Crichton describes. Teens can read a fictionalized account of the Bone Wars brawlers in Every Hidden Thing by Kenneth Oppel (2016; 361 pages). The book blends Romeo and Juliet with 19th century paleontology as it follows star-crossed lovers Samuel and Rachel whose fathers are rival paleontologists hoping to uncover the remains of the king of all dinosaurs. This book does include some moderate teen romance that wouldn’t be appropriate for middle school-aged readers or younger.
Younger readers can read about the rivalry of Cope and Marsh in Dinosaurs: Fossils & Feathers by M.K. Reed and Joe Flood (2016; 117 pages), one of the entries in First Second’s Science Comics series. Did you know for instance that Cope and Marsh would bury fake bones for each other to find, or that their diggers would get into rock fights with each other and even used dynamite to ruin excavation sites? Fortunately for us, Cope and Marsh’s petty competition led to the discovery of some of the most well-known dinosaurs of all time, such as stegosaurus, triceratops, apatosaurus, and the pteranodon.
Can’t get enough dinosaurs? Check out our dino dig station and other great booths at the Summer Reading Kick-off event at the library on Saturday, June 3 10 AM-1 PM. And join us for a week of dinosaur programming June 18-25. We’ll have dino-themed storytimes, paleontology programs led by representatives from Falls of the Ohio State Park and Marengo Caves, a dinosaur escape room for tweens and teens, a dinosaur scavenger hunt for all ages, and a program all about dinosaurs in the movies where we’ll make our own dinosaur movies!
