The Fossil girl Mary Anning's dinosaur discovery by Catherine Brighton

This time last year I visited Lyme Regis.  I was keen to go to their little museum because I use an old program called A skirt Through History with my students.  The episode entitled The Wreckers focuses on the suffragettes and in particular on one lady called Sarah Bennett.  In the program it says we would not know about her involvement with the movement to gain the vote were it not for her diary which was found in the Lyme Regis museum.

Sadly I found no trace of this diary but I did find out a little more about another lady called Mary Anning who discovered an important dinosaur fossil in 1810.  The Lyme museum is built on the site of Mary Anning's original home. Women who were involved in early scientific discoveries have always fascinated me.  Did you know Beatrix Potter was a keen scientist who studied mushrooms and toadstools?

I have been reading the Kinderbookswitheverything blog where my friend talks about using simple biographies with her students.  When I saw one about Mary Anning I knew it would be terrific for our library.

This book uses a graphic novel style to explain how Mary and her brother came to find the fossil of an Ichthyosaur and how this find helped her family business selling 'curiosities'. You can read more about Mary on the Natural History Museum web site where I was lucky to see her portrait last year.  Here is a link to the author web site.  This book would be perfect for young dinosaur fans and for students who are interested in paleontology.