A sweet rhyming text perfect for dinosaur fans. Catchy and engaging with lovely bright illustrations which have a classic feel.

Inspired by the life of paleontologist Mary Anning, this is the story of fossil hunting told in rhyme.

Maisie Jones lives by the sea and loves walking along the beach looking for fossils which she collects to sell in her family's fossil shop.

It's an activity she loves and is good at, and her ambition is to find her very own dinosaur bones.

One day she does find something spectacular but a strange, austere man in a top hat steals her discovery and tries to claim it for himself!

The story is inspired by Mary Anning who lived on the coast in Dorset and, with colourful, cheery illustrations and details about her discoveries at the back, it proves a very appealing introduction to an amazing woman and the challenges she faced. Lovely!

Based on a real young fossil-finder, with a lovely message.

Maisie loves looking for fossils by the sea and putting them in her family's shop. She may not be an adult but she's keen. One day brings in a professor who looks down on the young fossil-hunter, which spurs her on to uncover the best find yet - but when her back is turned... where did it go?

A story about small being able to overcome big, about standing up for yourself and being passionate about what you believe in.

And it's based on Mary Anning, with details about her life and work at the end.

Excellent rhyming story, lovely illustrations, and a great comparison to the real-life fossil hunter to show how people weren't (and still aren't) always treated fairly.

For ages 4-9.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

What a fabulous book!

Maisie loves nothing more than hunting for fossils, sometimes she takes them to sell in their family fossil shop near the beach. One day she finds something truly spectacular but when she returns with her family to collect it, it has vanished . . .

This is such a glorious story on so many levels 🤩

A fantastic tale of pursuing your dreams and standing up for yourself and what you believe in, plus the rhyming element makes it a fabulous, engaging read. Dinosaur and fossil lovers will adore it and it is enriched with wonderful vocabulary. Beautiful illustrated by Jenny Lovlie. There’s also a baddie to add extra excitement! It will appeal to multiple audiences, not just the fossil and dinosaur fans!

There’s a fab bit at the back explaining that the character was inspired by a person called Mary Anning so there’s some depth for further reading and research too.

A fiction book filled with fossils and dinosaurs is going to be a huge hit in our school library!

Thank you so much to Macmillan Children’s Books and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.

Maisie Jones loves dreaming about finding dinosaur fossils on the shores where she lives, she digs and digs and most days finds nothing. Then after a mean man drops by her father’s store she becomes more determined to find some, and find some she does.

This was a fun story, I loved the way it was written, I also really liked Maisie, she wanted so badly to find the bones she’d been dreaming about and was starting to feel really dejected that she had only found small ones, but with the guidance of her Gran managed to keep pushing herself until she got a big discovery.

The illustrations were so incredible to look at, so much going on within the images from inside her dads store with the children everywhere, the bones and other things all over the place, to her dreaming about the different dinosaurs seeing them all together, then to her finding her discovery and the big museum she finds herself in. There was so much to look at.

I loved finding out the additional facts at at then end about Mary Anning in which was the inspiration for this story, I really loved getting to learn about her and all she went through, living this dream that our protagonist in the story had, but for real and how hard it was for her.

This is such a fun story, it was easy to read and flows really beautifully, the illustrations are so wonderful to look at and it’s imaginative a great read for young ones, especially young ones that love dinosaurs themselves.

A delightful picture book about Maisie Jones and her quest to uncover her own fossils! A book full of beautiful illustrations and a story about being true to yourself and having bold ambitions.

My daughter absolutely loved the story and that it was a girl searching for dinosaurs (“Girls can look for dinos too, Mummy!).

A charming rhyming story, with a likeable main character with a dream and an instantly unlikeable villain! The story is made even better as it is inspired by the life of Mary Anning and includes some brilliant information, too.

Will definitely become a permanent fixture on our bookshelf once it is released and I’ll be purchasing a second copy to use in school to accompany our science lessons.

This is a delightful story about a little girl who belongs to a family that runs a wondrous shop full of fossils. She dreams of making a unique discovery, and ventures out regularly to find new treasures.

But when she DOES uncover a big find, Maisie discovers that there are always people who want to take credit for the work of others!

This is inspired by the fascinating story of Mary Anning, which was even more interesting for me as an adult than Maisie's story is. How Anning followed her passions with such tenacity, despite the obstacles she faced back in the day (all designed to deprive women of the opportunities that were so often monopolized by men), is inspiring.

And hopefully Maisie's story which carries an important message will inspire young girls to follow the dreams despite the barriers they face - just Mary Anning did. Recommended for young readers, both male and female!

This book is about dinosaurs and a young girl’s passion for science and dinosaurs as well as her discoveries.

Maisie, a bright child, longing to find many more dinosaur fossils, lives with her gran, father and siblings.

One day, a man, who is a snob, arrives in town, and… the rest would be spoilers.

This is written in rhyme, has beautiful pictures and emphasises being authentic to your self and following your dreams; believing in yourself even when people undermine you. Another key message was the discrimination against women in science in the early 19th century.