Mary Anning's Curiosity by Monica Kulling

Key Text FeaturesĪ quick, enlightening, sweetly engaging (and fascinating) read is Monica Kulling's Mary Anning's Curiosity, presenting not only Mary Anning's life story from her miraculous deliverance as a toddler (being struck by lightning and surviving, whilst three adult women, including the neighbour holding her were killed) to her first major fossil find, her so-called curiosity, the very first discovery of what the scientific community now calls an ichthyosaur, an ancient aquatic lizard (in complete form), Mary Anning's Curiosity also introduces young readers to early 19th century England (especially to the coastal regions of Cornwall, to Lyme Regis in particular) and to the many problems and potential tragedies working class families such as the Annings often faced (no social safety net, the very real threat of prison for entire families if debts could not be paid, the ravages of diseases such as tuberculosis). In this triumphant novel about scientific discovery, Monica Kulling brings Mary Anning and her world to life for young readers.

Mary Anning was uneducated, poor and a woman, but her life’s work of fossil hunting led her to make many discoveries that influenced our understanding of prehistoric creatures and the age of the Earth. Between dodging her rival fossil hunter the Curiman, and the sheer work of carefully digging out the fossil, Mary took almost a year to excavate what would later be termed the Ichthyosaurus. At the age of twelve, Mary, with her older brother Joe, found what they believed to be the skeleton of a gigantic crocodile, the Great Croc of the legends. When her father injured himself and was unable to work, Mary quit school and took up fossil hunting full-time to help support her family, a task that became even more important when her father died, leaving the Annings in debt. Her father, a carpenter and part-time fossil hunter, taught his children to look for fossils. Mary was born in 1799 in Lyme Regis, England.

The amazing story of how the world’s greatest fossilist found her first huge find at the age of twelve.

Mary Anning's Curiosity by Monica Kulling