From School Library Journal
Kindergarten-Grade 3 --In this revised edition, Aliki has revamped the previous four-color edition with lively full-color illustrations, also adding the pointed, conversational observations of children as they make discoveries along with readers. In clear, precise language, she explains how dinosaur tracks are cast in mud, how insects trapped in sticky tree sap harden into amber, and how fossils of tropical plants are found in very cold places. The children populating these pages are boys and girls of every color, on foot or in wheelchair, all of them active observers with scientific curiosities; they are apparently making these discoveries in a museum, marveling and enjoying the bits of history cast in stone. The book closes with a suggestion for creating a one-minute fossil by making a clay imprint of a hand, letting it dry, and burying it for someone to find a million years from now. School and public libraries will want to replace the old edition with this one. --Denia Lewis Hester, Dewey School, Evanston, ILCopyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Book Description
What is a fossil?Sometimes it's the imprint of an ancient leaf in a rock. Sometimes it's a woolly mammoth, frozen for thousands of years in the icy ground. Sometimes it's the skeleton of a stegosaurus that has turned to stone.A fossil is anything that has been preserved, one way or another, that tells about life on Earth. But you can make a fossil, too--something to be discovered a million years from now--and this book will tell you how.


Card catalog description
Explains how fossils are formed and what they tell us about the past.


About the Author
Aliki grew up in Philadelphia in a very Greek family. Her talent for drawing, first recognized by her kindergarten teacher, was encouraged by her parents and other teachers she will never forget.After graduating from the Philadelphia College of Art, she started a career in advertising art. She married Franz Brandenberg and lived in Switzerland for three years, where she wrote and illustrated her first book, The Story of William Tell.After they moved to New York, she wrote My Five Senses, the book that changed her career and her life. Besides her own books, Aliki has illustrated many by other authors, including Franz. Their children, Jason and Alexa, who have artistic careers of their own, appear in many of Aliki's books as cats, mice, or themselves.Aliki loves music, theater, films, museums, reading, and digging in her garden in London, where she lives. She travels frequently to the United States, Greece, Switzerland, and other countries, many of which are reflected in her books.NOTES FROM ALIKI0nce, when I was reading one of my books to Jason, who was just learning words, I asked him, "What is my name?" He said, "Byaliki." I laughed. But in many ways I am a bi-Aliki. Greek and American. Bilingual. Author and illustrator. Writer of fiction and nonfiction-books that come from inside out (feeling books), and outside in (research books).I had no thought of becoming a writer until it happened. But early on, I developed a lifelong habit of writing down my feelings. I realized it helped me understand my hurt, anger, bewilderment, or happiness. Words flowed out into poetry, letters, and journals. It was practice for later on.I wrote The Two of Them when my father died. I wrote We Are Best Friends when we moved from New York to London. I wrote about my childhood seaside vacations in Those Summers. In fact, it was on one such family vacation that I was born unexpectedly (in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey -- but we never lived there)!Marianthe's Story, two books in one volume, is very much my own. In one of its two parts -- Painted Words -- Mari is lucky to have such an understanding teacher and the ability to express herself through pictures (as was 1). In Spoken Memories, the villagers are composites of family and friends, and the voice is often my grandmother's. She cared passionately about education and passed it on to us.All by Myself! -- snapped after watching my nephew Peter, who was just learning to dress himself. We can take nothing for granted. All skills -- from the simplest to the most complicated -- are learned. They take patience, perseverance, and determination. With some, a little talent helps. Life is one big challenge. I'm still trying to learn to swim.My research books come from a fascination with a subject I know only a glimmer about. It can take three years to read, delve, dig, write, and repeat the process for the illustrations. It can be torture, because Virgos don't like to make mistakes.To write My Visit to the Aquarium, I visited eleven aquariums -- the most fun research ever. But then I had to get the right fish into the right tank. My Visit to the Zoo was even harder. Nine zoos, hundreds of books, magazines, and related matter. And with all due respect to the author, the illustrator has twice the work. I call it hard fun.All books -- read or made -- change lives. None more than William Shakespeare & the Globe. I was challenged by wanting to compress 40.0 years into 38 pages, to tell (in words and pictures) a story that comes full circle. It didn't help that we know very little about Shakespeare the man. But I was enveloped by his words -- which brought him to life. When I finally finished, the pain of loss -- which lasted months -- was like parting from a beloved friend.

ANNOTATION

Explains how fossils are formed and what they tell us about the past.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

What is a fossil?

Sometimes it's the imprint of an ancient leaf in a rock. Sometimes it's a woolly mammoth, frozen for thousands of years in the icy ground. Sometimes it's the skeleton of a stegosaurus that has turned to stone.

A fossil is anything that has been preserved, one way or another, that tells about life on Earth. But you can make a fossil, too—something to be discovered a million years from now—and this book will tell you how.

FROM THE CRITICS

Children's Literature - Beverly Kobrin

Save old editions when you update primary-grade dinosaur collections with Aliki's revised Fossils Tell Of Long Ago, My Visit To The Dinosaurs, and Digging Up Dinosaurs. Have children compare old to new, discover the changes, and discuss why they think those changes took place.

School Library Journal