I enjoyed this book but I had almost hoped it would work better for younger readers. As a parent of a 5 year old I'm always on the lookout for great books for little girls and Fossil Hunter was so close but got a little bogged down by it's sparse pictures and lengthy text.

(suitable for older students) This biography of Mary Anning, the "fossil hunter" gives such a clear picture of Anning's life and work. The book is filled with wonderful illustrations, photos of drawings, excerpts of notebooks, and letters from Anning's life. It's a very thorough and well-researched book. It also touches a little bit about Anning's struggle being a female paleontologist from a lower class, living in a time when women's place was solely at home.

I loved this book! I can't wait to share it with my children. Mary Anning's story is full of grit and determination. The narrative is easy to read and beautiful and the illustrations really help build her story.

Thoroughly researched and very extensive, this narrative nonfiction book of the life of Mary Anning can only be called dense. I chose to read it because I thought it may be interesting for me to share with my third and fourth grade students, but its 85 pages of single-spaced factual information would definitely need to be geared toward upper elementary and middle school students.

As an educator, I appreciated the large amount of back matter materials, including an Author's Note, Timeline, Glossary, Where to See the Fossils, Source Quotes, Photo Credits, Index and a Bibliography. All of which total 35 pages. I am just not sure a young adult would, too.

I found this book to be very informative, as well as an easy read. The chapters were organized well and the book was well researched. There were a lot of quotes from Mary as well those who knew her or bought her fossils which was nice. There were also multiple illustrations, which I appreciated. I liked how pictures of the fossils were included as references. There were also lots of facts included about the fossils Mary found which was also appreciated.
I had heard about this woman before, but I always love learning more about amazing women and so I'm glad I was able to review this book.

Superbly researched this is a fantastic tale of Mary Anning. The accompanying illustrations make this an easily accessible text and a vital addition to the KS2 science curriculum. In Fossil Hunter, Blackford has clearly showcased why and how Mary Anning's contributions to the world of paleontology should never be forgotten. Mary's story is a remarkable one and Blackford's style is both engaging and informative. A fabulous 5 star read
Huge thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for this early access.

This book makes me so happy! It is about time that Mary Anning’s life is documented with such a lovely book! This is one that is beautiful to read and to look at. This will be making its way into my work library. It’s gorgeous.

Fossil Hunter is a beautiful, detailed non-fiction book about the life of British fossil-finder, Mary Anning. My girls and I read another book about Mary's life a few years ago, but Cheryl Blackford has done an exceptional job filling in the details of the few facts we already knew.

In a time where women were overlooked for their scientific discoveries, Mary managed to build a career out of fossil-hunting, allowing her to provide for her small family after her father passed away. While few of her fossils remain, she is finally earning the recognition she deserves!

Absolutely beautiful book based on the life of the extraordinary Mary Anning. I absolutely loved this book and it will become super handy when we learn about Mary Annings life in our science unit.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book it was beautifully written and I actually learnt things through the book that I was later able to use in real life. A pleasant read expertly and interestingly written

Fossil Hunter by Cheryl Blackford tells the interesting history of early paleontology. This book has beautiful photos of the early finds and this really brings the book to life. Young readers who love dinosaurs will adore this book. Its short chapters are the perfect format. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

This was a well-researched and illustrated book that could easily be adapted for a reader. A good introduction on the topic for upper grades.

This was a wonderfully written book, with absolutely beautiful illustrations of prehistoric animals and creatures (I love prehistoric/scientific illustrations!). There is a contents page, alongside a glossary and a great timeline summarising the paleontological pioneer, Mary Anning’s life.

I was engrossed from the first page, I will certainly be talking about this book to the children and teens (even if it aimed more at 7-12 year olds) I tutor and work with both to understand such a pioneers life, to show them #WOMENINSTEM in the past but also because it is such a wonderful introduction. This was the type of book I would have myself loved to read as a child!

Fossil Hunter would be a great addition to any school library or public library's biography section.

The illustrations simply lift off the page in this stunning book that is both historic and entertaining. I will be recommending copies for our class libraries as inspiration for STEM content as well as strong female characterisation.

Sophie was seven years old when Jurassic Park arrived in cinemas, making her the perfect age to instantly become obsessed with everything paleontology-related. That interest has never gone away and has these days manifested into an interest in the scientists responsible for bringing dinosaurs into the public eye. Mary Anning is one of Sophie’s favorites and so she was keen to pick up Fossil Hunter by Cheryl Blackford, a biography aimed at young readers.

Fossil Hunter packs an enormous amount of information into fewer than 100 pages and yet remains incredibly easy to read. Mary Anning’s whole life is covered from her childhood finding fossils on the beach with her father and brother, through to her later years when she ran her own fossil shop and befriended many leading scientists of the day who would discuss their new theories with her. The whole book is filled with photographs and illustrations showing the incredible discoveries she made, how the fossilized creatures she uncovered may have once lived, and other more mundane things such as her childhood home and a sketch Mary herself once drew of her dog Tray.

The book is frequently frustrating, especially when it discusses the obstacles Mary faced simply because of her gender. Women at the time were not taken seriously as scientists and despite her obvious knowledge—knowledge that often benefited her male contemporaries—Mary’s contributions were usually ignored or forgotten with men taking credit for her discoveries. The book doesn’t shy away from pointing out the injustice of this, and of the extra difficulties she faced due to her poor, working-class upbringing. Instead, it shines a light on these challenges and uses them to prove how strong a woman Mary was and why we should continue to tell her story.

Sophie absolutely loved Fossil Hunter—her first five-star read of 2022—and encourages anyone with an interest in paleontology to pick it up.

Such a good story about Mary Anning, who slowly but steadily made her name known in the world of paleontologists.

There are 10 chapters, and each chapter just flies by with good information about her life that is told in a fun way. I enjoyed all the diagrams, photos, and pleasant and amusing pictures that are included along the way.

To the Christian readers:
This book states that Mary Anning was a Christian herself, but it does not state exactly how her Christian perspective translated to her paleontology work (as it remains historically unknown). The book also talks about Mary's contemporaries such as Charles Darwin (and others) who believed in evolution.

This book was geared for a bit older than I had expected, but it was an interesting narrative nonfiction. Fossils and dinosaurs are always a popular topic with the younger readers in my library and women in science are always popular with the parents.
I really like this book and hope that it will find an audience with my slightly older science and dinosaur fans.

Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Written for a child audience, or young at heart, this biography of Mary Anning alternates between full page illustrations and block text with a singular picture and caption. Mary Anning is a woman fossil hunter whose adventures helped to afford 6 months of food when she discovered a fossil as a child. Her mother sold the fossil to a landowner who in term sold it to a museum.

Anning continued her pursuits despite era expectations to keep tidy, out of the son, and avoid physical labor. I definitely plan to have this book as part of my classroom library as well as highlighting Mary Anning during Women’s month.

This is a great nonfiction young adult book. I also really enjoyed it as an adult. My daughter is weeks away from her 10th birthday and did struggle with a few of the words but quickly got the hang of it. She read over half of it before she declared she didn't want to read anymore as it was too hard, so I finished it off for her and thought it was wonderful. I would put this book at more for 12 plus years old and I feel adults would find it very interesting too. But with both absolutely loved the pictures in this book.  I had never heard of Mary Anning and was fascinating reading this book. I really do believe that this book should be read in schools as part of a history ,science or geography lesson. This book would be perfect for a school library or anyone with an interest in natural history,  geography or Geology. Also those like me who love to read or share with their children the fascinating facts that one were once overlooked in history and where not recognised for the work they did. Also showing children that they can do anything they put there mind to.
The layout of this book was brilliant and it flowed so well making it a delight to read. I would of really liked to see the dinosaurs names written out phonetically so we could pronounce the names correctly without the intervention of Google. I find it brilliant who more and more books like this one has come to light to highlight the unsung women of science and nature finally recognised for the true genius they are.
So much praise goes out to the author and publishers for creating this brilliant account of Mary Annings fantastic life and discovery of new fascinating dinosaur fossils.
The above review has already been placed on goodreads, Google books, Barnes&noble, kobo, amazon UK and my blog https://ladyreading365.wixsite.com/website/post/fossil-hunter-by-cheryl-blackford-clarion-books-4-stars
Under either name ladyreading365 or lady Reading365