Bone Detective: The Story of Forensic Anthropologist Diane France (Women's Adventures in Science

by Lorraine Jean Hopping

Diane France loves bones. Why? Because they talk to her. Every skeleton she meets whispers secrets about the life?and death?of its owner. Diane France can hear those secrets because she's a forensic anthropologist, a bone detective. She has the science skills and know-how to examine bones for clues to a Who was this person and how did he or she die? Bones tell Diane about the life and times of famous people in history, from a Russian royal family to American outlaws and war heroes. They speak to her about murders, mass disasters, and fatal accidents. One day she's collecting skeletal evidence at a crime scene. A phone call later she's jetting to the site of a plane crash or other unexpected tragedy to identify victims. Young readers will be captivated by the thrilling real-life story of this small-town girl full of curiosity and mischief who became a world-famous bone detective. This title aligns to Common Core Interest Level Grades 6 - 8; Reading Level Grade level 7.1: Lexile 1080L; Not Available; Guided Z

Genres: Childrens, Science, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2005

Reviews

[Keri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kerima McLucas
Biography

Diane France, Ph. D., D-ABFA, loves bones! She is a forensic anthropologist, a bone detective that deeply cares about her science career. She assists in recovery of human remains. Diane has been assigned to many cases during her career, such as identifying remains after the 911 disaster. Great photo illustrations complement Diane's story as told by Lorraine Hoping. Skeletons and bones tell a story about the homicide, trauma or disaster cases and Diane listens and feels her victims. She is a significant member of NecroSearch International, a volunteer group that assists in locating remains around the world. Diane also travels around the country holding lectures about her forensic anthropology career.

The biography of Diane France is very well written and able to capture the reader’s interest from the first page. A part of the Women's Adventures in Science series, Diane's story is a wonderful for young women who may be looking at forensic anthropology or another science career.

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biography of forensic anthropologist Diane France who works with NecroSearch international as well as local law enforcement, is a college professor, and runs her own company that specializes in making casts of organs, bones, etc for law enforcement, research, and museums. Diane was one of the first women to be broadly recognized in the field, and has built herself world-renown with her work on important cases.

For some reason I find the work of forensic anthropologists fascinating. This one follows Diane from her childhood through to major events in her life as of publication of this book in 2004. Since it is a book aimed at middle grades and/or young adults, the gory details of much of her work is somewhat glossed over (though not entirely...still not for kids with squeamish stomachs). It was very interesting to hear about her early work with NecroSearch and how they were working on just figuring out signs of hidden graves and best field practices for recovering evidence from unusual areas. The book is a bit dated now. Diane was approached about trying to find the missing bodies of the two youngest Romanovs and as of publication of this book they hadn't been found, but since the publication of the book the youngest Romanovs' remains have been recovered by another team (you can direct readers to more recent info in The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia by Fleming). Still an interesting read. The publisher might want to consider doing a revised edition of this book and updating Diane France's accomplishments and other info.

Notes on content: No language issues that I remember. No sexual content. Several terrorist acts and natural disasters that killed numerous people are cases Diane was called to work on. The gory details are for the most part glossed over while not minimizing how hard it is to work in those situations and deal with death on such a grand scale. There is a story of Ms. France getting a brain to do a casting and it spills on her which may really gross out some readers. A few murder cases the NecroSearch team worked on are also related, but gory details are again minimized.

[Heidi Busch · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good upper elementary to middle school level book for an interesting introduction to forensic anthropology.

[Zoe Maes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book fairly interesting, although some sections were less exciting than others. I liked how the author communicated with the reader and how she added a bit of humour to make the story more engaging. The actual information is also very entertaining. I found that some sections of the book are less appealing than others because not as much activity is going on. Overall, the book was enjoyable to read and very informative.

[Vanessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a very intersting book. You got to learn about her life, and the things that she did and had to go through with her life and her job. It describes about the different things of bones, and how bodies just become bones. My favorite part of the book was when they would tell about her life and why she wanted to do it. Also how she became a bone detective and the process of what it took her to get to this carerr and where she is now. I found the story very interesting, and though a biography it has a lot of stuff that you want to know when you start reading this. When it gives you just a slight bit of a subject, or a caption that involves more of the story, you want to know what that chapter of segment is about. Like the frst chapter, Dianes Brain. Truthfully they don't talk about her actual brain but they do talk about her life and the way she thought about the things and different things in her life. I would reccomend this book to many many people that are not affraid of bodies and who enjoy those mystery murders ( though this book does not include any stories of murders or chost. Ghosts are in fictional books only, just a fact) . This book also has more then just bones, it shows the sites, how you know if or that a body is hidden there, who the bones might belong even if all you have is bones to look at, and showing the process of bodies to bones. I found this book very informational and helpful with me to understand the human bones and someone else life that enjoys this job on the way. Though, most of this book is about Diane's life, it also show what her job is and what she does which is also a big part of her life. I extremely enjoyed this book!

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good background on forensics.