When Sue Found Sue

Sue Henrickson Discovers
Her T. Rex

Abrams Books for Young Readers
(pub. 5.14.2019) 
32  pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Toni Buzzeo
     and illustrator: Diana Sudyka

 
C haracter: Sue Henrickson

O verview: 
     "Sue Hendrickson was born to find things, large or small. As a child, her curiosity led her to find many treasures, from lost coins to a tiny brass perfume bottle. And as she grew, her curiosity grew, too. She became a diver who searched for lost boats and buried treasure and a paleontologist who searched for prehistoric-whale fossils.
     On a dig in South Dakota, Sue discovered something bigger than she had ever imagined: the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever unearthed, a skeleton named Sue in her honor. Full of scientific intuition and true adventure, When Sue Found Sue will inspire young readers to look closely at the world around them and to nurture their curious spirits."

T antalizing taste: 
"During the last weeks
of her fourth summer of digging for duckbills
in the blistering heat,
Sue Hendrickson felt pulled
to a sandstone cliff
far off in the distance.
She couldn't say why then -
and she couldn't say why even now -
but she was called to that cliff.
And on August 12, 1990,
when her team headed into town
to fix a flat tire,
Sue finally followed her curiosity."

And something more: Toni Buzzeo's Author's Note explains that while "many other T. rexes are represented by a few important bones, Sue the T. rex is more than 90 percent complete. She's the largest (thirteen feet tall at the hip and forty-two feet long), most complete, and best-preserved T. rex ever found. What's more, when she was found, her bones were in excellent condition, rather than the fragile state in which many fossilized bones are recovered."