Thomas Jefferson and the Mammoth Hunt: The True Story of the Quest for America’s Biggest Bones

Clickard (Dumpling Dreams) employs rhyming nonfiction to recount Thomas Jefferson’s search for mammoth bones in the newly formed United States. Jefferson wants to refute French scientist Georges-Louis Leclerc, who trivializes the nascent nation: “He claimed the New World/ was a chilly, swampy place,/ filled with puny, scrawny creatures,/ every species, breed, and race.” Leclerc, also known as Count Buffon, subscribes to a degeneracy theory, suggesting that European immigrants and their children settling in “an unprolific land” (the U.S.) would become degenerate. Jefferson enlists the help of Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, and others to search for large animals or their fossil remains, until he is finally able to send a mastodon skeleton to France. Carpenter’s (Have You Heard About Lady Bird) digitally rendered illustrations are full of playful soupçons—Jefferson measures mouse holes and moose antlers in one series of vignettes—complementing the jaunty verse. A full-page author’s note (dedicating the book to the “lost voices” of slave laborers involved in the search), further reading list, primary source quotes, and a glossary conclude this true tale. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Tricia Lawrence, Erin Murphy Literary. (Jan.)