Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards: Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Guilded Age of Paleontology Paperback – Illustrated, 1 Oct. 2005

At age 7, my son is still fascinated by dinosaurs, especially rocks and bones. As he also loves graphic novels, this seemed like a great idea. The idea of taking the Bone Wars between March and Cope and turning them into a graphic novel is absolutely brilliant. Children can learn about science and history and have fun at all the same time. The execution however, was less than brilliant. The art work is black and white but it is good - no complaints in that department. The pages are well laid out and easy to follow. I had the impression while reading this, that the writer had less background in these characters than my son had though. He felt the need to write in a fictional sub plot which really made things confusing and both my son and I struggled to keep track of what was going on. I really wish he had left that part out and instead included some of incidents that were actually reported at the time, such as sabotage and the use of dynamite to destroy fossils rather than let the other get their hands on them. Even the eventual social, financial and academic ruin suffered by both men as the result of their feud is difficult to understand going solely by this book.In short - you will need a good background in the fossil wars between these rival paleontologists to understand what is going on this book. But if you already know the story so well - do you really need the book? Nice pictures but not much in the way of content. I could still recommend this simply because it is so unique. It is something different on a paleontology oriented bookshelf especially for a child with a combined love of paleontology and graphic novels - but it will not be for everyone.

Very cool book!

Rendered in beautiful artwork, full of fascinating historical figures as well as an intriguing critique of the competitive nature of science & academia.

This is a mostly made up version of the famous "Bone Wars" between Marsh and Cope and would have been more interesting if they had stuck to the facts (see "The Gilded Dinosaur" by Mark Jaffe). More art work of the dinosaurs would have been a bonus. One of the few dinosaur books I've given away rather than kept.

Book was very confusing. I did not finish it.

My son (10) is a dinosaur fan and reads all dinosaur related books. Unfortunately he didn't found this book exciting. Lots of potentially great plots, not very clearly or interestingly written.