There's the tension between Vinny's divorced parents, as well the question of whether Vinny's dad's coworker is his girlfriend, and the overbearing tendencies of Vinny's dad's boss. The present-day chapters don't delve as much into actual archaeology work as they do into the inter-personal relationships of the characters.
The segments of the story set in prehistoric times are well-written and engaging, but their connection to the present isn't developed that well. While this book has an interesting premise, the execution mostly fell flat for me. In the present day, Vinny, the daughter of an archeaologist accompanies her father to work on a dig and must contend with the oppressive behavior of his difficult boss. In the past, Li, a primitive young woman in a prehistoric tribe, begins to imagine beyond her culture's current capabilities. She's almost ageless in her maturity-you just know that she's younger than the others, but sometimes sees things more clearly than they do (which is why she's a good foil for Li).Ī Bone From a Dry Sea is a 1992 Carnegie Medal winning middle grade novel with a dual timeline.
When I was reading this at 10 or 11 or 12, I never wondered about Vinny's age-the things that she did that were extremely adult, like breaking down her feelings about her divorced parents so matter-of-factly, or standing up to Joe Hamiska, felt natural. On this read of the book I was much more interested in how old Vinny is supposed to be, which is the sign of a well-written YA novel. And, of course, the narratives end up colliding with the discovery of a bone from a dry sea. I love both stories: the Li narrative is imaginative and strange, and the Vinny narrative paints an interesting picture of paleontological life. The other half follows Li, an ancient hominid who begins to expand the boundaries of her tribe's knowledge. Half of the book follows Vinny, the daugher of a modern-day paleontologist (well, taphonomist) who visits the dig site that he's working on in Africa. It's an odd little novel that imagines our distant ancestors as sea apes.
I immediately thought about this book when I started reading Sapiens, about the history of our species.
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