Mary Anning Breaks New Ground: Courageous Kid of Paleontology

Courageous Kids

By: Carol Kim

Narrated by: uncredited

Length: 23 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1811, while exploring the cliffs near Lyme Regis, England, 12-year-old Mary Anning made the find of a lifetime. There in the rocks was the skeleton of a strange creature. Mary's find was later named Ichthyosaurus, a reptile that lived more than 250 million years ago. Anning went on to have a long career finding and identifying dinosaur fossils. However, her work often went unrecognized by male scientists of the time, and she received little credit until long after her death. Learn about Mary Anning's perseverance and her important discoveries in paleontology.

©2022 Carol Kim (P)2024 Capstone Press

Critic reviews

These four graphic novels tell the stories of outstanding young people of the past. In Mary Anning Breaks New Ground, readers learn of Anning’s discoveries of prehistoric fossils along the English coast, her research, and her struggles to be recognized by the male-dominated Geologic Society. Ruby Bridges Takes Her Seat details the struggles of the six-year-old girl who broke school racial barriers in 1960 New Orleans. The Little Rock Nine Challenge Segregation provides a suspenseful account of the events surrounding the integration of Little Rock, Arkansas’s Central High School. Anne Frank Writes Words of Hope provides readers with a look at her life inside the annex while hiding from the Nazis. Colorful drawings tell the story as much as the text and will attract visual learners. The information provided is good and the detailed narratives in Ruby Bridges and The Little Rock Nine are engrossing; readers will anxiously turn the pages to see how events unfold. Dinosaur fans will appreciate Anning’s opportunity to find and research so many fossils. Those unfamiliar with Frank’s story will find her an inspiration as someone who managed living in a constant state of fear and uncertainty. VERDICT Given the graphic form of these books along with perennial classroom topics, these books should do well in libraries and attract those who like the pictures to inform as well as the text. (Margaret Nunes, former Librarian, Gwinnett County Public Library, GA)