Rare Treasure: Mary Anning and Her Remarkable Discoveries

Mary Anning was born to a poor family and grew up on Great Britain's southern shores. Her cabinetmaker father helped support his family by finding and selling fossils from the Jurassic period which were abundant in that area. He died when Mary was only eleven, but she'd learned his fossil finding skills. Mary is credited with finding the first ichthyosaur fossils when she was eleven year old. This book, by Don Brown, as wonderful as the others he's done about amazing women, shows young readers Mary's childhood and the hardships she had to rise above. It's a perfect book for any dinosaur loving child. After all, they should know how we know about the great beasts that roamed the earth so long ago. Like Mr. Brown's other books, this is written for a child a bit older than my son's almost three years, but we, Devon and I, go over this book a lot and when he is reading, and the good Lord willing, that won't be too much longer. This is one of the books he's going to be reading. If you've got a young child and you want to open the world of reading to him or her, you cannot go wrong with a book written and illustrated by Don Brown.

I have used this book (and others by Don Brown) to support a "Famous People" unit I teach in my 2nd grade classroom. I love the illustrations in this book and the inspiring and interesting text. This book would be especially (but certainly not exclusively) appealing for children interested in prehistoric times.

Having loved all of Don Brown's previous work, I was happy to see that this work was highly praised by Pulitzer Prize-winner Natalie Angier in the New York Times Book Review. Rare Treasure was even better than the first books: historically accurate, engaging, and beautifully illustrated. Brown is able to write simply and humanistically about remarkable people, in a way that allows the young reader to relate. He spoke at my daughters' elementary school, and both kids and parents are still talking about his work. Bravo! Don Brown, write more!

My 4 year old son and 6 year old daughter just love the book. It's a great inspiration.

What a lovely story and beautiful illustrations. Mary Anning provides a great female role model (especially given her time in history). I am always thrilled to find great books about true, historical events and people. My two girls were both captured by the story and illustrations - they often ask "did this really happen?" of books we read - it was great to be able to say YES! This book is a treasure indeed.