The Fossil Whisperer: How Wendy Sloboda Discovered a Dinosaur by Helaine Becker

Wendy loved hunting through hills and gullies for unusual things like rocks, birds, burrs and bird feathers. She also loved to take pictures of her finds with her camera.

During a class field trip to the badlands near her home in Alberta, twelve-year-old Wendy discovered a piece of fossilized coral.  Her teacher explained that "Millions of years ago, this land was the Western Interior Seaway - an underwater world teeming with marine life." 

Wendy was intrigued by the information a fossil could provide about the past and so she began hunting for fossils in earnst. Her favourite place to hunt for fossils was Devil's Coulee, part of the badlands. Soon she was finding many fossils. 

When she was seventeen, Wendy made an rare find - a fossilized dinosaur eggshell. This discovery brought paleontologists to Devil's Coulee to explore for more fossils and they found them: more fossilized dinosaur eggs from Hypacrosaurus. Even more  important was the discovery of dinosaur embryos in the fossilized eggs!

These discoveries led to Wendy working at the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology and traveling the world to find fossils in other countries, including Greenland and Mongolia.

Wendy continued to hunt for fossils in Alberta, uncovering the fossil of a unique horned dinosaur. Because the rest of the fossilized remains of the dinosaur were buried deep, it took four years to excavate and extract the bones. Paleontologists were able to determine that this was the remains of a new horned dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous. The dinosaur was named after Wendy, Wendiceratops pinhorensis. Meanwhile, Wendy continues to find fossils.

Discussion

Wendy Sloboda is a Canadian fossil hunter who has made many significant fossil discoveries over the past few decades that have led to a great understanding of dinosaurs. Born in Warner, Alberta, Sloboda found her first significant fossil in 1987 as a teenager. This discovery was of fossil eggshells, as described in Becker's picture book that led scientists to discover several nests of duck-billed dinosaurs called hadrosaurs. Other notable finds include a fossilized turtle containing eggs, the footprint of a new ichnospecies of dinosaur, as well as her discovery of a new species of horned dinosaur which was named in her honour.

Becker's detailed account of Slobada's contributions to paleontology includes some information on the types of animals that populated the Western Interior Seaway, and explanations as to why the discovery of the  Hypacrosaurus embryos was so significant. Becker's research for the book included interviewing Wendy Sloboda.

Telling Wendy Sloboda's story in picture book format does make her contributions accessible to younger readers but photographs of locations and of Wendy would have been nice additions to the book. A map showing Wendy's hometown, the location of the Alberta badlands (including some photographs of this unusual landform) her discoveries would also be helpful. Sandra Dumais' colourful digital illustrations round out the story.

Included in the back matter are several pages with information about the real Wendy, How to Be a Fossil Hunter, Alberta's Amazing Bone Beds (a picture of the Alberta badlands would have done nicely here), How Are Fossils Formed?, About Wendiceratops, a Glossary and where to find more information.

The Fossil Whisperer will help inspire a new generation of girls to consider geology and paleontology as potential career options. Wendy Sloboda's life demonstrates that a childhood interest can develop into a life-long career.

Book Details:

The Fossil Whisperer: How Wendy Sloboda Discovered a Dinosaur by Helaine Becker
Toronto: Kids Can Press      2022

A Brush Full of Color: The World of Ted Harrison by Margriet Ruurs & Katherine Gibson

A Brush Full of Color is the picture-book biography of artist, teacher and author, Ted Harrison. Edward (Ted) Hardy Harrison was born in 1926 in Wingate, County Durham, England. Ted was a twin, sharing his birthday with sister Mary Algar (Olga). Ted's father was a coal miner, a dangerous job that did not pay well and which he did not like. Despite the black, drab countryside, the Harrison home was a happy one, that was clean and warm. Ted's mother cooked good meals and they were kept well dressed.

Ted's father enjoyed sketching and he encouraged Ted to draw as did his Latin and English teacher, when he was older. Because Ted's father had quit school when he was twelve to work in the mines, he was determined his children would receive more of an education than he had. Ted and his twin sister Olga loved the encyclopedia set their father gifted them and Ted loved to read.

During World War II, Ted first saw a crate of apples that had been sent to County Durham from British Columbia, Canada in his uncle's store. During the war, Olga became a nurse while Ted enrolled in the Hartlepool College of Art. After the war, in 1946, Ted sailed to Bombay, India as part of British military intelligence. There he spent time drawing the rich culture of India. He also travelled to Egypt, Kenya in East Africa before returning home to England. These travels showed him both the happy and sad side of life.

Ted next took a position as an art teacher in Malaysia where he found the rich colours of flowers, waterfalls and tea plantations. In Malaysia, Ted met his wife Nicky who was from Scotland and was the administrator at the school where he taught. When Ted's mother died in 1965, he and Nicky, and their adopted son Charles moved back to England. But teaching at Wingate wasn't rewarding, so Ted and his family moved to Wabasca, Alberta where he was a teacher.

In Alberta, Ted enjoyed teaching his Cree students who often brought him unique gifts like a bird's egg. Ted would draw pictures for them and tell them funny stories. He found the Dick and Jane readers used to teach students to read were not relatable to the young Cree students so he made his own book filled with his drawings.

Ted and Nicky moved to Carcross, Yukon where he taught mathematics, science and reading to elementary students and Nicky became a kindergarten teacher. In the Yukon, Ted's style of painting changed from the strict rules he had been taught in England. Instead he decided, "I'm going to paint my Yukon!" Using the styles and techniques he had encountered in his many travels to Africa, Asia and New Zealand, Ted began to paint in the way that he felt captured Canada's North. In 1981, Ted retired from teaching to become a full-time painter. Ted was asked to illustrate the Robert Service poem, "The Cremation of Sam McGee", he designed the Yukon Pavillion for Expo '86 in Vancouver and had his art exhibited in galleries and in many private collections.

Discussion

A Brush Full of Color is a colourful, engaging book about British-Canadian artist and author, Ted Harrison. Ruurs and Gibson provide readers with Harrison's life story, showing how his love of learning saved him from work in the mins, and portrays how his life experiences ultimately influenced his art.

Although his experiences living in Africa and Asia would come to influence how he would paint the Canadian North, it was Harrison's experience living and teaching in northern Canada that had the most profound effect. His life experience in the North compelled him to change his style in order to capture the landscape and life in the Yukon. The impetus for this change seems to have been triggered by his recognition that the old style readers written for children who lived a very different life  simply did not reflect life in northern Alberta and the Yukon. These readers did not reflect life in the North and the style of painting Harrison was taught in England did not allow him to capture the beauty of life in northern Canada. 

A Brush Full of Color portrays Harrison's artistic transition by offering readers plenty of images of Harrison's art prior to coming to Canada, his work when he first came to Canada and then many images of his paintings after living and working in the Canadian north for a time. His paintings are filled with unique colours for houses, sky, clouds, the sea and the sun. Ordinary, everyday items like houses have unusual shapes. His flowing freestyle of painting captures the wind, the movement of the sea, the sun and the people. Harrison's paintings offer a vibrant perspective to northern life that many who live in Canada's south may never have realized.

The strength of this picture book is the portrayal of Ted Harrison's artistic journey, and the numerous pictures of  the artist's artwork, allowing readers to become very familiar with his unique style. Author Katherine Gibson spent four years interviewing Harrison for her biography, Ted Harrison: Painting Paradise. It's obvious she knows her subject well and this is conveyed to readers, young and old.

Book Details:

A Brush Full of Color: The World of Ted Harrison by Margriet Ruurs
Toronto: Pajama Press     2014

40 pp.

Finding Melissa by Cora Taylor

Life for Clarice Warren has never been the same since the disappearance of her little sister, Melissa during a camping trip to the North Thompson River, twelve years ago. Unable to resolve the disappearance, Clarice's mom became obsessed with missing children and blamed both her father and Clarice. Eventually the strain led to Clarice's parents divorcing and her father remarrying and starting a new family. Clarice's counsellor at school has suggested that she keep a journal. She suspects that Clarice has internalized her guilt about her sister's disappearance and this is causing her to act out.

When Clarice rethinks the events of Melissa's disappearance that night many years ago, she comes to a startling revelation: she and Melissa snuck out of the tent to go to a special hideout but that Claire returned to the tent alone. She remembers the campground being illuminated with what must have been car headlights. Unsure of what to do, Claire keeps this revelation a secret.

Meanwhile in northern Alberta, in the town of Tomahawk, fourteen year old Leesa Weldon still suffers from nightmares. She lives with her Aunt Rosie and she's been told that her father brought her here years ago. This summer Leesa is going to be a live-in babysitter for Rhonda and Peter Friesen and their two children, Agnetha (Aggie) and Dawson. Then unexpectedly, Leesa's father, whose been in jail, gets released and shows up at Aunt Rosie's home. Without knowing why, Leesa is completely creeped out by this man who frightens her beyond understanding.

The third narrator in the story, Hector (Heck) Larkin, is a pedophile and convict who pretends he's Rosie's "father". His narration fills in the reader on what exactly happened that night twelve years earlier and what his future plans are for Leesa. His friend Turk who is still in jail will be helping Heck as soon as he gets released. In a strange twist that brings together Clarice's world with that of Leesa, it turns out that Clarice's friend, Shelby, has been corresponding with a guy online. That guy is Turk who reveals to Shelby in an email that his friend had kidnapped a girl from a campground in Northern B.C. years ago. It is this piece of information that pushes Clarice to finally tell her secret to an adult. From this point on, Taylor weaves together the narratives that builds to a suspenseful, but somewhat predictable conclusion.

Finding Melissa is a short novel that is sure to capture the interest of reluctant readers. Taylor has created four unique characters whom the story centers around. Clarice is the forgotten daughter, who in some ways is just as lost as her sister Melissa. With her mother's life revolving around solving Melissa's disappearance, no one seems to have recognized the effect this tragedy has had on Clarice.  Leesa has grown into a strong, self-sufficient teenager, who tries to follow her Aunt Rosie's advice and have some spunk - that is to be assertive when necessary. Heck is a cruel man who likes little girls, a thief and a drug dealer, impulsive and completely lacking a conscience. Aunt Rosie is a generous, kind woman whose main weakness is her brother Heck, whose true nature she can't seem to accept.

Readers may be confused by the timeline given in the novel. The story opens with three pages featuring "newspaper clippings" of the kidnapping which was said to have occurred in 1990. The date of Clarice's diary entries are supposed to be twelve years after the kidnapping but are dated 2012. Apparently, Taylor began working on this story in the early 2000's and so the kidnapping date was set as 1990. However, years later she picked up the drafts and finally finished them, but the date on the newspaper clippings was not changed. For the time line to make sense, the newspaper clippings should be dated 2000.

Cora Taylor is the author of fourteen books. She was born in Saskatchewan but now alternates her time between Alberta, Ontario and Florida.

Book Details:
Finding Melissa by Cora Taylor
Markham ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limited 2014
183 pp.