Bone Beds of the Badlands

Sandy Campbell is a reference librarian in the Science and Technology Library at the University of Alberta.

If this book contained a thrill on every page, one could more easily
ignore its many flaws. One could forget the fact that the basic
plot—boys from an Ontario hockey team go to Drumheller and have an
adventure—has already been successfully explored in the Screech Owls
series. One could forgive the gratuitous geographic and political
insults—how many young readers appreciate why a character named
Stockwell is referred to as a “pinhead”? One could tune out the
dated slang such as “parental units.” One could also overlook the
two-dimensional stereotypes who fill the roles of supporting characters
and the plot contrivances that the author requires to create the
“adventure.” One might even be able to steel oneself against the
implied crimes of the “bad guy” (his unnatural interest in
children’s bones, preferably out of their bodies, seems more
appropriate to the horror genre than to a preteen adventure novel).
However, this is not a “thrill-a-minute” novel. As an adventure
novel, it is a fairly good travelogue of someone’s trip to Calgary and
Drumheller. The detailed landscape and historical descriptions are
guaranteed to send most boys back to their video games.

Considering the array of adventure books available in the market place,
libraries with limited budgets will want to put this one low on their
priority list. Not recommended.