Review: Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards

Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edward Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Palenontology
By Jim Ottaviani and Big Time Attic
Published 2005 by G.T. Labs

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. Another ALA prep title, this is a graphic novel about the race for dinosaur bones. I like the style of the illustrations and I like the use of various text forms in different instances (a big-top style font for P.T. Barnum, etc.). However, I found the story itself incredibly confusing. In fact, I'm still not sure what exactly was happening. It was really difficult for me to keep the characters straight and figure out who was working for who, who was sabotaging who, etc. Even after reading the author notes about fact versus fiction, I'm still not entirely clear on how things worked. Maybe it's just me. But I definitely would have benefited from more clarification on matters throughout the book.