The Fossil Keeper’s Treasure by Amy Atwater

Welcome to another National Non-Fiction November blog post.  Today Amy Atwater tells us more about her book and the inspiration behind it!

 

The Fossil Keeper’s Treasure

Amy Atwater

Every scientist starts out as a curious kid. My book, The Fossil Keeper’s Treasure, is an ode to all the children out there who are inspired by the natural world.

Like many adults, my love of fossils started when I was young. I was recently talking to one of my paleontology idols, paleoartist Ray Troll, about this. He said that all people are born loving dinosaurs and fossils, but as we age, life’s responsibilities take us away from our original joys. We need a spark, something like a new book, a new experience, or the first time you find a fossil, to reawaken that dormant love that’s been there all along. And that’s something I’m trying to achieve with this book. It’s intended for kids, but it’s really for people of all ages. We know how important it is to read to our children, and the tactile nature of the book really brings the prehistoric animals to life. I love to think about a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, or guardian reading The Fossil Keeper’s Treasure with the kiddo in their life, and both parties being able to learn new things, explore our earth‘s history, and create a bonding moment.

I fell in love with paleontology growing up in Oregon in the western United States. I spent my summers attending science camp in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument where they have an incredible record of mammal evolution after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Thunder beasts, saber-toothed cats, bone-crushing dogs, and terminator pigs captured my imagination and nurtured my curiosity about the amazing prehistoric animals hiding beneath my feet. Paleontology is an awe-inspiring science that fills us with wonder and curiosity. Dinosaurs can be an amazing gateway into the sciences. I don’t know too many kids who start out saying they want to be an endocrinologist, instead, it’s things like dinosaurs, space, and volcanoes that get kids hooked on science, leading to them pursuing careers that then benefit society.

The rush of finding a fossil that has never been seen by human eyes is one of the best feelings in the world. Every fossil tells a story, and I love making the space and time to learn the lessons a simple stone can teach us. I work at Dinosaur Ridge, a phenomenal paleontology site in Colorado famous for the hundreds of dinosaur footprints preserved on an impressive wall that makes every visitor say “wow!”. The first ever Stegosaurus was discovered at Dinosaur Ridge, and I’m lucky to work there every day. A friend of mine is a glaciologist who studies ice cores to understand our planet’s dynamic climate. He says his school trips to Dinosaur Ridge as a kid is what convinced him to pursue science as a career. All it took was that one trip, seeing real dinosaur fossils firsthand, and now our world has one more steward looking out for planet Earth.

Now I have a son of my own. He has been my biggest source of inspiration in writing The Fossil Keeper’s Treasure. He’s already been to his fair share of dinosaur digs and museums and I suspect that he will have every dinosaur name memorized once he’s talking. He may not understand quite yet that his mom wrote a book, but he loves flipping through the pages and touching every fossilI. It makes my heart melt. Everyone deserves a chance to touch a fossil,

which is why I was so passionate about having raised, textured fossils for everyone to touch on every page of The Fossil Keeper’s Treasures. Paleontology is an incredible science, and it’s one I want to share with everyone.