Roy Chapman Andrews was a childhood hero. For that matter, he’s still something of an adult hero. Paleontology as I worked at it involved peering at fossil brachiopods through a stereomicroscope until I went cross-eyed; Andrews lead a motorized expedition through Outer Mongolia, fending off bandit gangs with heavy machine guns mounted on his Model As while stopping now and then to pick up species new to science. (Well, I did twist my ankle once collecting in the Dolgeville Formation. And, while never encountering bandits, I did have a long conversation about property access with farmer who was repairing his manure spreader. It was hot day, too). This is a “young adult” book, picked up because it was in the $1.00 bin and I didn’t have a biography of Andrews. It does, alas, greatly exaggerate the amount of adventure involved in paleontology, but I doubt I could get the typical young adult interested in detrended correspondence analysis of Ordovician marine benthic communities or temporal variation in trilobite pygydia. I don’t have any reprints left, anyway. ( )

This book is perfect for budding adventurers, dinosaur hunters and archaeologists. It follows the life and times of paleontologist and explorer Roy Chapman Andrews. During the early part of the 20th century, Andrews finds dinosaur bones in the Mongolian desert, explores the tropics for rare animal species, and becomes one of the earliest scientists to study (rather than hunt) whales.

The book is written at a fairly high elementary school level - maybe strong 3rd grade readers and up. I'm reading the story to my first grader and finding myself modifying some of the language so he can understand better(ex: hanging jungle lianas becomes hanging jungle vines).

In addition to exploration and discovery, "Danger" introduces anthropology and cultural awareness when Chapman spends some time in a Mongolian ger (tent) while finding himself lost in the Gobi desert. My son particularly enjoyed hearing what the Mongolian's ate and how they were able to quickly collapse their ger, move to a new location, and pop it back up.

One of the stories is a little raw (Chapman's best friend dies in a boating accident), but all of them will appeal to a boys' imagination.

I highly recommended "Danger in the Desert". ( )