A Dinosaur Named Ruth: How Ruth Mason Discovered Fossils in Her Own Backyard

Starting with Ruth Mason’s childhood in 1905 South Dakota, where “no one thought much of the strange rubble”—the fossils she collects near her home, Lyon and Bye profile a white, “curious girl who discovered a lost world beneath her busy feet” in this told-you-so telling. Though she writes to museums and universities, which deem her finds “worthless,” Mason “knew enough about the land to know that what she kept finding wasn’t ordinary.” She spreads her collection beneath nearby elms, creating a bone garden of “ancient secrets harvested from her land.” After a fossil hunter called Rick Brooks arrives in Mason’s 80th year, a group of experts finds “thousands of bones, representing at least ninety-nine dinosaurs” near her Badlands home. Digital art shows Mason’s world in jewel tones, bringing the vibrancy of her certitude, and her finds, to portrayals of the landscape, the fossils, and tables covered in a lifetime’s worth of letters. Back matter includes an author’s note and further reading. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)