Ice Age Bones and Book: Mammoth

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

If you have been meaning to bone up on extinct proboscideans this year,
then this kit is a great way to start. Not only do you get a miniature
mammoth skeleton that comes ready to assemble within its own imitation
Ice Age glacier, but there is a handy little book chockablock full of
color illustrations and amazing mammoth facts. You will learn, in no
time, how to tell a mammoth from a mastodon, how pachyderm skeletons
likely spawned the legend of Cyclops, and whether these tremendous
creatures will ever walk the earth again.

The text traces the rise of the woolly mammoth from its first
appearance in Europe to its final extinction on a Siberian island four
thousand years ago. The author also explains how scientists know so much
about these extinct creatures after finding their fossils, their dung,
and even complete carcasses frozen in arctic ice. Todd Zalewski’s
colorful illustrations successfully re-create the mammoth and its
environment. Highly recommended.