Dig into summer reading with books about dinosaurs, gemstones and more
Dig into summer reading with books about dinosaurs, gemstones and more
Daniel Boone Regional Library, Springfield News-LeaderFri, May 8, 2026 at 9:07 AM UTC
0
Each month, the Columbia Public Library offers selections from its collection related to a current best-seller or hot topic. Library AssociateSkyler Froesecompiled this month’s selections.
Grab your shovels! For Summer Reading at the Daniel Boone Regional Library we are going to Unearth a Story. We will be digging into stories of dinosaurs, archaeology and everything else under our feet. As you go deeper, you will notice changes in the soil and treasures buried in it. These are strata, the distinct layers of sediment, objects and minerals that mark time from the near past at the top to the ancient secrets buried deeper. Anyone with a hankering for new books and exciting tales will love the stories we will excavate today. Let's dig in!
Dirt and worms
“Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand” by Jeff Chu
In the topsoil under our feet, we can find fossorial animals, or beasts that live underground. “Life Underground: Tunnel Into a World of Wildlife” (DK Publishing, 2023) by John Woodward beautifully illustrates the lives and interactions of these many creatures through subterranean cross sections. These many animals help enrich the soil, which is the centerpiece of Jeff Chu’s memoir “Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand” (Convergent, 2025.) Later in life, Chu left his job to join the Princeton “Farminary.” There, as he dug for roots and tubers, he began to find meaning in the earth he tilled.
Rocks and gems
“Rednecks” by Taylor Brown
Digging further, my shovel clangs against harder surfaces. Rocks, perhaps even some gems, are at hand. Both are precious and special in Linda Liu’s “Hidden Gem” (Henry Holt and Company, 2023) in which a small pebble sees a display of rare minerals and discovers what makes them all valuable. For adults with an interest in gems and stones, “Crystals, Rocks, and Gemstones” (Ten Speed Press, 2025) by Kelsey Oseid offers a colorful, illustrated guide to mineralogy. Regardless of a mineral’s beauty, its economic value can control lives, towns and fates. The largest labor uprising in American history was in fact fought over coal mining, and those events are dynamically fictionalized in “Rednecks” (St. Martin's Press, 2024) by Taylor Brown.
Advertisement
Relics and remains
“A Compendium of Curious Contraptions” by Anna Goldfield
Beneath the mineral strata, evidence of long-buried lives and places begins to emerge. Some of these finds seem strange and almost indecipherable, like the ones in “A Compendium of Curious Contraptions” (Neon Squid, 2025) by Anna Goldfield. Readers are encouraged to slowly identify buried ephemera. Other objects, like the relics of the Sacred Band of Thebes hold secrets of the past and premonitions of modern romance for teen Tennessee Russo in “Lion’s Legacy” (Union Square and Co., 2023) by L.C. Rosen. Most mysterious to find at this level are human bones, wiped of any name or identification. Podcaster Laurah Norton cannot rest until these remains have their names back, and, in her book “Lay Them to Rest: On the Road With the Cold Case Investigators Who Identify the Nameless” (Hachette Books, 2023), she partners with scientists to explore the science of forensic identification.
Hidden civilizations
“Knee Deep” by Joe Flood
Buried artifacts are often the key to interpreting ancient civilizations. Piecing together the lives of long-passed people becomes an obsession for Dr. Ember Agni as she travels across the world to justify her lifelong scholarship in the novel “Ruins” (Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Book Group, 2026) by Lily Brooks-Dalton. In these same deep caverns, maybe new societies will begin in the far future, like the one described in “Knee Deep” (Oni Press, 2023) by Joe Flood. In this graphic novel, humanity has taken refuge in a network of underground tunnels, and so has teenaged Cricket. As she races to find her parents, a new danger emerges from a powerful mining company that threatens her new home.
Dinosaurs
“Rhinos in Nebraska” by Alison Pearce Stevens
Even before long-buried human civilizations, there was another kingdom, whose memories lay even deeper in the earth: the dominion of the dinosaurs. For as long as we have excavated their fossils, humans have invented all kinds of stories and explanations for these giant serpents., The story of how the scientific community slowly formed a consensus on the existence of dinosaurs is described in “The Monster's Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World” (W.W. Norton & Company, 2022) by David Randall. In the 20th century, excitement about ancient bones led to digs across the world, even right next door to us in the Ashfall Fossil Beds, which you can read about in “Rhinos in Nebraska” (Henry Holt and Company, 2021) by Alison Pearce Stevens. Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures still inspire art and books for every age, including interactive board books like “Let's Go Home, Baby T. Rex” (Nosy Crow, 2025) by Carolina Búzio.
At the core of summer reading
Well, now the library floor is covered in dirt, and we should probably stop before we get to anything molten! Dig up some more stories, perspectives and even prizes when Summer Reading for all ages begins on May 29. When finished, readers can enter to win drawings for mammoth sized prizes.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Unearth a story through summer reading at the Columbia Public Library
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
