He has written a num-ber of books that incor-porate some of hisadventures that have beenlikened, according to Buf-falo Spree, to “Dinosaur

CSI and across betweenIndiana Jonesand Jurassic Park for thejunior detective set.”

In 2001, he won the pres-tigious Katherine PalmerAward for Paleontology, fromthe Paleontological ResearchInstitute in Ithaca, NY, in partfor his educational efforts.

Known as a wonderfulstoryteller and accomplishedscientist, he has had quite anumber of adventures to share

and written numerous books based on hisexperiences. You can find his collectionof local fossils in the Schoelkopf Geo-logical Museum in Niagara Falls.

For the youngest paleontologist, Pa-leoJoe has written Hidden Dinosaurs

Everyone interested in di-nosaurs — children, grand-

children, and any kids, age 2 to102,will have a great opportunity to meetand talk to a dinosaur hunter and au-thor of several children’s dinosaurbooks.

PaleoJoe will bring dinosaurs tolife with the story of his 2008 discov-ery of a 60-foot long Camarasaurus di-nosaur and description of the ancient

Jurassic in the San RafaelDesert of Utah.

The Penn Dixie Paleonto-logical and Outdoor Educa-tion Center is pleased to haveJoseph “PaleoJoe” Kchodl, ofMidland, Michigan, speaking on“Camarasaurus Dinosaur Dis-covery in the Deserts of Utah”on Friday, May 14, 2010, at7pm in the auditorium of the

Gateway Executive Office, 3556 LakeShore Road, Blasdell.

This previously un-researchedsite yielded nearly 250 dinosaur bonesin the first dig season, encompassing7 different dinosaur species on loca-tion.

PaleoJoe will illustrate how the di-nosaurs were found, carefully re-moved and the preparation required toget them from the field to the labora-tory. PaleoJoe will have his books for

sale and autograph before and afterthe presentation.

Children, scouts, students from alllevels, families, and groups are wel-come to attend this special program.Plan for an evening of adventure, en-tertainment, and learning. Whoknows? The next world famous pale-ontologist from Western New Yorkmay be sitting in the audience!

Penn Dixie members are FREE,non-members $3 each. Call 716-627-4560 for information and directions.

The Penn Dixie Paleontologicaland Outdoor Education Center, in Ham-burg, also provides a variety of eventsand programs in fossil collecting, geol-ogy, astronomy, birding, wetland inves-tigations and studies, summer daycamps, group visits, birthday parties,exhibits at science nights and shows,and off-site programs year-round. Visitwww.penndixie.org to learn more.

12 WNY Family May 2010

Who wouldn’t love to meeta dinosaur hunter? Whodoesn’t enjoy a good di-

nosaur book? Who wouldn’t love to meeta dinosaur hunter who writes dinosaurbooks? And what could possibly make itbetter than for the di-nosaur hunter to besomeone from WesternNew York? If theseideas excite you thenyou are in for a treat!!Joseph Kchodl (other-wise known as “Paleo-Joe) is a real lifepaleontologist and hewill be here to tell hisstories of discovery andadventure!

Kchodl is a gradu-ate of Lewiston-PorterHigh school and received a bachelors de-gree in Education from Niagara Univer-sity in 1979. He began his careersearching for fossils in the Niagara gorgeand went on to discover a 60-foot-longCamarasaurus in Utah in 2008!

(Mackinac Island Press,Traverse City, 2006,$18.95). This picturebook is packed full of in-

formation and can be usedin many ways. It can beread as a story with sim-ple, poetic, and informa-

tive text. It can be used todiscover many interesting facts about

dinosaurs in the Dino Data boxes onevery other page. Or it can be used topractice looking carefully (just like a pa-leontologist) to search the illustrations forhidden icons.

In it we learn about kinds of di-nosaurs, where they lived, what they ate,how they lived, how and where the fos-sils were discovered, and the science ofpaleontology. This book is fun and in-formative on so many levels.

PaleoJoe is also known for his Di-nosaur Detective Club series. In his firstbook The Disappearance of DinosaurSue (Charlesbridge Publishing/MackinacPress, Watertown, 2006, $7.95), writtenwith Wendy Caszatt-Allenis, there is a

■ Pick Of The Literature

Meet PaleoJoe, Dino Hunter & AuthorMay 14th at Penn Dixie Center Event

by Dr. Donna Phillips

May 2010 WNY Family 13

mystery. What happened to Sue, themost complete skeleton of a tyran-nosaurus rex ever found? How couldshe be missing from Chicago’s FieldMuseum? It takes PaleoJoe, with thehelp of young Shelly Brooks andDakota Jackson, to find out.

This book is an interesting lookinto the world of fossil collecting andsmuggling, that involves detectivework and an exercise in problemsolving. In it we also learn a bit aboutPaleoJoe himself; his world travels,

his timein the US Army, and his knowledgeof the German language and his CSIskills. Readers will find this storyhard to put down. It is written so thatmost children can read it in upper el-ementary school and it will teachthem without their even knowing it.To make it even more fun, it acts as aflip book. Fan the pages and bring atyrannosaurus to life as it runs acrossthe page!

PaleoJoe has written four othersb o o k s

like this in his series. In StolenStegosaurus (Charlesbridge Pub-lishing/Mackinac Press, Watertown,2006, $6.95) Shelly goes on a dig anddiscovers Stegosaurus eggs but soonafter, they disappear. It is up to Pale-oJoe, Shelly, Dakota, and DetectiveFrank to find out what happened tothem. And just like in The Disap-pearance of Dinosaur Sue, there is acartoon of a Stegosaurus that runsacross the pages as you fan it!

Secret Sabertooth (Charles-bridge Publishing/Mackinac Press, Watertown, 2007, $7.95) is amystery that involves a missing brother, a sabretooth skull andthe La Brea tar pits. There seem to be some unusual happeningsin the raptor room in Raptor’s Revenge (Charlesbridge Pub-lishing/Mackinac Press), and the crew goes to Siberia to look for

mammoth tusks and runs into troublein Mysterious Mammoth (Charles-bridge Publishing/Mackinac Press,Watertown, 2008, $6.95). Each ofthese chapter books will be a greatway to engage your readers in mys-teries, paleontology and reading!!

❖❖❖❖Dr. Donna Phillips is an associateprofessor in the Education Depart-ment of Niagara University whereher specialty is children’s literatureand literacy.