When Sue Found Sue: Sue Hendrickson Discovers Her T. Rex

by Toni Buzzeo, Diana Sudyka (Illustrator)

Overview

From a very young age, Sue Hendrickson was meant to find things: lost coins, perfume bottles, even hidden treasure. Her endless curiosity eventually led to her career in diving and paleontology, where she would continue to find things big and small. In 1990, at a dig in South Dakota, Sue made her biggest discovery to date: Sue the T. rex, the largest and most complete T. rex skeleton ever unearthed. Named in Sue’s honor, Sue the T. rex would be placed on permanent exhibition at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. When Sue Found Sue inspires readers to take a closer look at the world around them and to never lose their brave, adventurous spirits.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419731631
Publisher:	ABRAMS
Publication date:	05/14/2019
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	132,579
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 10.60(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	1080L (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Toni Buzzeo is the author of the Caldecott Honor Book and New York Times bestseller One Cool Friend and many other books for children. She lives in Arlington, Massachusetts. Diana Sudyka is a Chicago-based illustrator who got her start designing and screen-printing posters for musicians such as St. Vincent, Andrew Bird, and the Decemberists. She also volunteers at the Field Museum in Chicago, where Sue the T. rex is housed.

Editorial Reviews

05/06/2019

Sue Hendrickson began her life as a “shy and incredibly smart” girl with an insatiable curiosity about the natural world and a passion for finding lost objects. This interest blossomed into a career as an underwater archaeological excavation diver (“diving first for tropical fish, and then for lost boats, lost airplanes, and even lost cars”) and paleontologist. In Sudyka’s warmly detailed art, Hendrickson dives in tropical waters and digs for duck-billed dinosaur fossils in an arid landscape of striated rock. It’s an exciting moment when she, standing alone with her dog, sees a partial backbone in the rock and correctly envisions a T. rex; the remarkable find will come to be named after the finder herself. Readers who see treasure hunting as a viable profession will be heartened by Hendrickson’s pursuit of her passions. Ages 4–8. (May)

Publishers Weekly

**STARRED REVIEW**
"Buzzeo’s considerable storytelling skills zero in on fascinating details, such as the experience of unearthing fossils, while Sudyka’s entrancing illustrations reflect this attention to detail and the passion Sue brought to her work. Additionally, it’s refreshing to see a profile of a modern, female scientist, who is respected in her field."

Booklist

"Dino fans craving anything about T. Rex need to know this chapter of paleontology and enjoy the gouache and watercolor art."

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

**STARRED REVIEW**
"Buzzeo’s considerable storytelling skills zero in on fascinating details, such as the experience of unearthing fossils, while Sudyka’s entrancing illustrations reflect this attention to detail and the passion Sue brought to her work. Additionally, it’s refreshing to see a profile of a modern, female scientist, who is respected in her field."

Booklist

04/01/2019

Gr 1–4—Sue Hendrickson was a shy but smart and curious little girl who was constantly on the hunt for things. Whether searching for lost trinkets, butterfly wings, shells, or information from books she read, Hendrickson possessed a voracious appetite for knowledge. As she got older, her natural curiosity grew. She joined teams of explorers to find different creatures and artifacts from around the world. Soon, she found herself looking for the things she'd most want to find, namely fossilized dinosaurs. After four years of digging in South Dakota, Hendrickson discovered a nearly complete skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex. The skeleton, named in her honor, was one of the best-preserved fossils ever discovered and remains on display at the Field Museum in Chicago. This delightfully illustrated tale of discovery and wonderment works great as a research starter or supplement to paleontology, basic science, or museum studies, and includes further references. The images combine a sense of simplicity and detail with large, full-page illustrations, and smaller eye-catching pops of color to keep readers exploring. VERDICT Appropriate for readers and listeners of all ages, this book rewards passions for learning and passes those values on to its readers. A must-have title for explorers and dino lovers alike.—Thomas Jonte, Pensacola State College, FL

School Library Journal

2019-01-15

The story of the discovery of the most complete T. Rex fossil to date and the shy autodidact after whom it is named.

Readers will definitely come away knowing at least two things about Sue Hendrickson (or three, counting the long blonde mane that makes her instantly locatable in Sudyka's outdoorsy scenes): first, that as a child she was shy—Buzzeo uses the word seven times in her short narrative—and second, that she was born to, as the author repeatedly puts it, "find things." As tantalizing references in both the main account and the afterword note, that curiosity has turned up a number of lost and hidden treasures, from amber to shipwrecks, but it is for Sue that she is best known. That discovery begins with four summers spent "digging for duckbills" in South Dakota, climaxed by the dramatic moment she spots "three enormous backbones" protruding from a cliff. The narrative continues through the painstaking process of removing the fossils bone by bone, then seeing the dinosaur at last reconstructed (after a long brangle over ownership) at Chicago's Field Museum. The prehistoric Sue poses regally at the close in both a painted portrait and a tailpiece photograph; though often seen alone, in group scenes, the white, human one works with a racially diverse set of colleagues.

Tendentious role modeling commingled with an exciting tale of dino discovery. (source lists) (Informational picture book. 6-8)

Kirkus Reviews