Meet Joan Wiffen, a super-determined, self-taught palaeontologist, and join her on the hunt for the fossils that will prove New Zealand once had dinosaurs. The award-winning true story of science superstar Joan Wiffen, whose fossil discoveries proved that dinosaurs lived in ancient New Zealand. Once there was a clever girl who liked searching for interesting things on the ground. She wanted to know why shells could be found in rocks so far away from the sea. But her father thought education was no use to a girl, so Joan had to leave school. Many years later, she bought an old map. To her amazement, she saw that it marked a treasure hoard. Not of gold and jewels, but of dinosaur bones. Nobody had ever found dinosaur fossils in New Zealand before - in fact, top scientists had said it was impossible. But Joan was intrigued. She decided to learn everything she could about palaeontology and hunt for these dinosaur fossils. This is the fifth picture book in an acclaimed series of true stories about the lives of famous Kiwis written by David Hill and magnificently illustrated by Phoebe Morris.

 

 

This book has been graded for interest at 5-10 years.

There are 32 pages in this book.

This is a picture book. A picture book uses pictures and text to tell the story. The number of words varies from zero ('wordless') to around 1k over 32 pages. Picture books are typically aimed at young readers (age 3-6) but can also be aimed at older children (7+).

This book was published in 2019 by Penguin Group (NZ) .

David Hill is a reviewer, fiction writer, playwright, and children's writer. He spent 14 years teaching before writing full-time. His first young adult novel won the 1994 Times Educational Supplement Award for Special Needs. He won the 2002 Children's Literature Foundation Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-Loved Book, the 2003 LIANZA Esther Glen Medal, the 2013 NZ Post Junior Fiction Award, and the 2013 LIANZA Librarian's Choice Award. Phoebe Morris collaborated with David Hill on the picture book biography of Sir Edmund Hillary, First to the Top . Unanimously praised for the quality of the illustrations, it was named a 2017 Storylines Notable Picture Book. Phoebe is also the illustrator of the Frankie Potts Junior Fiction series by Juliet Jacka. David Hill, born in 1942, is a versatile journalist, reviewer, fiction writer, playwright and children's writer. Born and educated in Napier and a graduate of Victoria University, he spent 14 years secondary school teaching before writing full-time. He has contributed stories, articles, reviews and plays to newspapers, radio and most New Zealand journals, including Landfall, NZ Listener and School Journal, as well as overseas. He has written many books and in 2002 his novel See Ya Simon won the Children's Literature Association Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-Loved Book.