Reading the Bones

★ “[An] enticing invitation to witness science in action. A big, multistranded discovery story. ” –Kirkus Reviews, starred review

★ “An exceptional nonfiction work that traces the finding of a new human relative, Homo naledi, and the discovery’s impact on contemporary society… Propulsive sequences… keep readers locked into the intense and exciting narrative.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review

“The details of what Berger and his team discovered are effectively balanced with how he did it, creating an even, focused recounting of how modern science works and adapts to a changing landscape–both literally and figuratively… The citizen-scientist element with Mead’s students will be especially of interest to science-minded kids, who might beg their teachers to get their own classroom paleoanthropologist.” –Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

★ “Part anthropology lesson, part adventure story, and all enormous fun… An exhilarating anthropological adventure sure to inspire readers to do some (literal or metaphorical) digging of their own.” –Booklist, starred review

“The authors capture the exhilaration of how scientific breakthroughs force us to reexamine what we think we know, along with Mead’s observations about his own students’ fascination with the topic.” –The Horn Book

Marc Aronson

Marc Aronson has been an innovative editor and author of books for young readers for over thirty years. The winner of the first Robert Sibert medal, and editor of the tenth winner (Tanya Lee Stone’s Almost Astronauts), Aronson is a passionate advocate of nonfiction. As an editor, he created EDGE—the first international and multicultural YA imprint—where he published such artists as Jacqueline Woodson, Nikki Giovanni, and the first YA graphic novel memoir, Judd Winnick’s Pedro and Me. The Skull in the Rock, which he wrote with Dr. Berger about the discovery of sediba, won the Subaru award for best middle grade science book. Aronson holds a PhD from NYU in American cultural history and is an Associate Professor of Public Professional Practice at Rutgers University, where he trains future youth librarians.

John S. Mead

John S. Mead has been awarded the John H. Murrell Excellence in Teaching Award (St. Mark’s School of Texas), the National Association of Biology Teachers Outstanding Biology Teacher Award for the State of Texas, the inaugural Evolution Teaching Award from the Teacher Institute of Evolutionary Studies (TIES), and the National Association of Biology Teachers (NABT) Evolution Education Award. John serves as a science advisor for the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas and is the only K12 member of the Education Board of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists. In 2019, John was selected to be a Teacher Ambassador for the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) as they sought to expand their classroom influence related to topics of evolution and climate change. He has served as President of the Texas Association of Biology Teachers.

Tim Foley

Tim Foley has worked for four decades as an illustrator for newspapers, magazines, and books, including over thirty titles in the popular “Who Was” biography series and the graphic novel adaptation of Dan Rather’s What Unites Us. He lives in Michigan.

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