Although this book is nearly 50 years old, most of the information is still accurate. It's written for a young reader, yet adults will like it too. The writing is engaging, not dry, and my 9-year old boy finds the book fascinating. There are plenty of well-drawn pictures, too.

My background is geology and environmental sciences, and I stumbled across this book at our local library. My first impression was that it was just another dumpy old book that our library was hanging onto because they can't afford anything new. But once I took a closer look, I was immediately absorbed. What a gem!

Here are about half of the chapters:

Our Modern Stone Age
Rocks, Minerals and Ores
The Story of Aluminum
The Mineral Called Asbestos
Borax and Its Relatives
Clay of Many Kinds
Coal from Ancient Swamps
Copper, the Red Metal
Elements and Compounds
Feldspar and Quartz
Fluxes and Purifying Metals
Gems for Beauty and Work
Graphite for Pencils and Atomic Piles
Gypsum Has Many Uses

Iron, Our Most Useful Metal
Lead and Antimony

Here is an excerpt:

COPPER, THE RED METAL
In 1660 a French fur trader paddled around the northern shore of the region now called Michigan. At the mouth of one stream he found copper lumps, or nuggets. He also saw a small island "all of copper." It probably was a huge nugget, lying in Lake Superior.
Indians obtained copper in Michigan long before the fur trader found it. In some places they picked up nuggets that lay in stream beds or on beaches, but they also got the red metal from mines. First they located ledges in which copper could be seen. Then they built big fires and kept them going all day and all night. When the rock was very, very hot, the Indians pushed the fires away and poured cold water on the ledges. This made the hot rock cool so quickly that it cracked.

I've searched for a similar, more-up-to-date book, and I couldn't find a thing. But the age of the book has its good points. As long as an adult is there who knows which things are obviously out-of-date, it becomes even more entertaining and of historical significance. For example, there's a chapter on how great asbestos is! Now, of course, we know that the health drawbacks outweight the rock's usefulness. But it is interesting to read WHY people liked it so much (it really has a lot of great properties), and to marvel at how ignorant the population was about the health effects. AND, to make parallels with the vast variety of chemicals that are used today because they have such great properties, but with unknown health and environmental effects.

There are also a few quaint passages like the first lines under the chapter, "Coal From Ancient Swamps":

"'Fill your coal bins!' say advertisements which we see every spring. 'Store up a supply of coal so you will be warm next winter!'"

A reminder of how many people used coal to heat their houses back in the 1950's! What a kick!

Even though I already have a geology degree, I've actually been learning quite a bit from this book, partly because of the writer's clear and engaging style, and partly because no other books that I know of discuss many of the topics found in this book (aside from highly technical publications). After my son asked me to read him the library copy of the book for several weeks in a row, I found a copy online and ordered it. This one's a keeper!

Easy to read, well illustrated, reconstructed fossils from protists to sponges to arthropods to fish to reptiles to mammals. It is noted that the original edition of this reference was written in 1958 by Carroll Lane Fenton and Mildred Adams Fenton, with revisions provided in 1996 by Patricia Vickers Rich and Thomas Hewitt Rich.

Much in the way of really good material on fossils including some 1500 pen and ink drawings in this excellent compendium. It also includes highly readable text which others of its ilk seem not to include. Would highly recommend to both the novice and somewhat advanced collector. Has been revised and updated several times since its original 1958 publishing with 1996 being the latest. I equate it to the USA Today of fossil books. Bottom line, an excellent value.

The original version of this book was published in 1958. It is a wonderful introduction to the fossil record. The book is organized by begining with the oldest fossils, and working forward through time to the most recent fossils. There are many excellent drawings and phtographs to help the reader understand not only what the living animal looked like, but what the typical fossil parts look like.

This book does not require the reader to already be a scientist in order to understand and enjoy it's contents. For the amateur fossil collector, this is a valuable reference book that will be used over, and over again.

Many important discoveries have been made in geology since 1958, and the more recent edition(s) incorporate these discoveries. Like all sciences, geology is a growing body of knowledge.