Reading the Bones: Homo Naledi and the Mysteries of Human Evolution

by Marc Aronson, John S. Mead

High-stakes adventure meets cutting-edge science in this true account of the groundbreaking discovery of Homo naledi, which shocked the world of evolutionary science and redefined what it means to be human—for readers ages 10+.

In 2013, deep in a cave in South Africa, a team of intrepid researchers from across the globe discovered a previously unknown human ancestor who is changing how we see our past—and present. Later named Homo naledi, what remained of this 300,000-year-old species was only accessible through a harrowing labyrinth of razor-thin crevices, some as narrow as 7 inches. Once in the main Dinaledi chamber (translated as “chamber of stars” in the local Sesotho language), researchers found hundreds of bones and a mystery like no other. This unprecedented discovery would not only offer insight into the lives of these astonishing beings—and by extension our own origins—it would also catapult the expedition into international news and the scientific spotlight.

Written by Robert F. Sibert Medalist Marc Aronson and a nationally recognized educator, John S. Mead—both of whom have been intimately involved with the Homo naledi story from the start—this fast-paced and fascinating nonfiction book for young readers reminds us that our evolution is an ongoing exploration, full of boundless opportunity for new discoveries, new questions, and new ideas. Chamber of Homo naledi and the Mystery of Human Evolution is the perfect book to inspire today’s curious kids to become tomorrow’s daring anthropological adventurers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Middle Grade, History, Science

192 pages, Hardcover

Published August 4, 2026

About the author

Aronson has won many awards for his books for young readers and has a doctorate in American history. His lectures cover educational topics such as mysteries and controversies in American history, teenagers and their reading, the literary passions of boys, and always leave audiences asking for more.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/marcar...

Reviews

[Alicia]

Aronson provides an accessible story about the research involved in connecting all of the dots for humanity in walking upright including the homo naledi and where it fits with all other homo- discoveries. In this book, there is a featured team of scientists who ended up being all women in a cave in Africa that was determined to be another cradle of civilization. How well can someone stand up to being in a dark, dank cave using headlamps and extremely hot to catalog bone fragments? It's just as much about the discoverers and scientists as it is about the discoveries themselves.

A cool story of evolution.

[Caitlin Teaches]

Reading the Bones starts out like an adventure novel and ends like a textbook. The science content can be a bit dry, but offers nice clear breakdowns of the content that is very approachable for a middle grade reader. There is a bit of a story to the book, but it devolves into a fairly straight forward run down of the discovery processes with brief deviations to faun over (mostly) Dr. Berger with a punctuated run down of what we currently know about human ancestors.

It's the handling of Dr. Berger that feels a bit.. off. From the start, it's made clear that he's been involved in some shady/questionable things, (South African diamonds??,) and his grandstanding doesn't make things better. The writing doesn't seem to know whether his choices make him an admirable anti-hero or a case of a scientist making iffy ethical choices, while leaning to the one that might make the story more 'fun'. Throughout the book, it does at least pose those questions, which could offer the opportunity for classroom or other discussion. But for a kid reading alone, they're just going to get a bit of hero worship up until he rage quits the internet when he gets bad feedback about sending specimen into space for attention. It's followed by there being a little too much documentation about the connections to him in a way that feels like it's covering for them.

On the other hand, love the voice to supporting more diverse scientist voices, and the coverage of Dr. Molopyane at least walks a little of the talk. She seems really admirable in her advocacy for African led research and promoting other marginalized scientists. It kind of makes the limited and half hearted coverage of the Underground Astronauts more disappointed because they aren't treated like individual people so much as a whole unit that reflects back on Dr. Berger.


Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the ARC of this book.

[Shelley]

The story of the 2013 archaeological find of a new hominid, H. Naledi. This was an interesting way to approach the history, since the history is still in the process of being found, written, debated, etc. The co-writer is a 6th grade science teacher who collected the tweets and videos made by the archaeological crew (all women!) as they were on the dig, and used them with his students to understand real life science in action. Which is a lot of questions, very few answers, and learning how to interpret and change your thoughts when new information is found.

I was an arch. nerd as a kid, so I found this super fascinating and interesting. I appreciated how Dr Berger intentionally included the South African community and government in the dig and the learning, with the wonderful South African university archaeologists taking lead in a lot of the work. Quite the contrast to the typical white male European archs who would only work with the other white male European archs they knew and hid all their findings for decades until they had figured out all they could first. But Berger also was a showboater who did stupid things like send bones to outer space! The authors left a lot of room for questioning everything, which is a skill desperately needed these days.

[Grinning Cat]

My first impression of this book is how smoothly it reads. It’s a page turner and very engaging and intelligent. Aimed at youth readers, I’d estimate that it would be appropriate for advanced sixth graders to ninth graders in interest and reading level, but it’s equally interesting for an adult who is a layman in regards to anthropology. The book explains the discovery and recovery of *H. naledi*, a new species of humanoid fossils, found in South Africa. One of the remarkable things about this dig is that the recovery team was exclusively female. Many of the discoveries were shared in real time on social media and the internet, which made this a truly modern excavation. The book gave a brief overview of the different fossils found over the years that relate to anthropology. I enjoyed reading this book and found the story fascinating.

[Kathy]

A "You are there" look at the process of making an exciting new discovery in archaeology in the modern, social media era. A class of 6th graders in Texas is able to follow along in real time as a team of up-and-coming scientists excavate a deep cave for a new hominin "Homo naledi" in South Africa. The usual way of male archaeologists from Europe and North America getting all the opportunities and credit is changing, and this is very open about how this change is happening. A good look at science (and how it isn't just a set of dusty truths found in a textbook).

[Amy]

This book was so hard to read and impossible to engage with. Right from the start, it feels like a brag session about who the author knows, and so many names are thrown out without context that you immediately get lost. Try to get past that, and it is a bone-dry read. Reads like a boring textbook, with little narrative to really pull the reader in and help them engage with the topic. I quit reading early on and went to skimming.

[Bethany]

If you have a reader with a special interest in archeology, this is the perfect book for them. However, for the lay reader, it’s a bit dry. I wish there had been more photographs and a more narrative framing rather than a retelling of this in the past perspective— that could perhaps have livened it a bit more.

[Meghan Bohn]

Very informative and easy to read. I liked how in addition to the main subject, it touched on topics like privilege in science and invited readers to ponder for themselves the balance of scientific rigor and getting the outside world interested in what you're doing.
Thank you very much to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) for the ARC!

[Kara]

Thank you Netgalley for an advanced copy!

A rather dry retelling of the discovery of Homo naledi, an early non-human species of early hominin who maybe practiced burial rituals before humans or Neanderthals. Its an interesting subject, but it could have been formatted and presented better. As is, its when someone does a so-so job telling an exciting story and ends with a "you had to be there!"

[Michelle]

I found this to be incredibly interesting. I was hoping for more detail. It kind of felt like reading a snippet of an event that was impactful for POC and women.

Thank you to NetGalley, Marc Aronson, John S. Mead, and Macmillan Children's Publishing Group for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.