EveryHiddenThing hc c.JPG — *Romeo and Juliet* meets Indiana Jones in this epic tale that combines the hunt for a dinosaur skeleton, bitter rivalries and a forbidden romance.

Somewhere in the Badlands, embedded deep in centuries-buried rock and sand, lies the skeleton of a massive dinosaur, larger than anything the late nineteenth-century world has ever seen. Some legends call it the Black Beauty, with its bones as black as ebony, but to seventeen-year-old Samuel Bolt, it’s the “rex,” the king dinosaur that could put him and his struggling, temperamental archaeologist father in the history books.

But Samuel and his father aren’t the only ones after the rex. For Rachel Cartland this find could be her ticket to a different life, one where her loves of science and adventure aren’t just relegated to books and sitting rooms. And if she can’t prove herself on this expedition with her professor father, the only adventures she may have to look forward to are marriage or spinsterhood.

As their paths cross and the rivalry between their fathers becomes more intense, Samuel and Rachel are pushed closer together. Their flourishing romance is one that will never be allowed. And with both eyeing the same prize, it’s a romance that seems destined for failure. As their attraction deepens, danger looms on the other side of the hills, causing everyone’s secrets to come to light and forcing Samuel and Rachel to make a decision. Can they join forces to find their quarry, and with it a new life together, or will old enmities and prejudices keep them from both the rex and each other?

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Reviews

"Rachel and Sam are compelling, realistic protaganists trying to chisel and hammer their way around a growing distaste for their respective fathers' behavior, family loyalty, societal expectations, sex and young love."

- Shelf Awareness

"Oppel handily inserts teen drama into the real-life Bone Wars of the nineteenth century while exploring the conflicting ideologies of the First Nations people and the scientists.... Sam and Rachel are well-drawn characters, Rachel especially breaking with feminine stereotypes.... Fascinating for readers interested in the romance, the paleontology, or the frontier history."

- Bulletin for the Center of Children's Books

"Kenneth Oppel ventures into a new territory with his latest work, but does so with all the elegance and artistry that he has brought to each work in his oeuvre. His storytelling genius is on full display in this tale that combines the allure of its wild west setting with an intriguing scientific quest (for dinosaur bones!) and a unique and compelling love story. The native presence in the story is handled sensitively yet realistically and the characters are believable, nuanced and sympathetic. While this book has been described as ‘Romeo and Juliet meets Indiana Jones,’ it is that plus so much more.”

– Canadian Children’s Book News

“Every Hidden Thing works well on a number of levels. As a mock history, it offers readers a sense of a vanished world in a restrained, unobtrusive manner. As an exploration of obsession and its costs, it allows readers the vicarious thrill of discovery, and the agony of the search. And as a romance, it is a realistic and enthralling depiction of young, secretive love.
This is not a clichéd, simplistic love story. The relationship between Samuel and Rachel is rooted deeply in Oppel’s skilled and subtle development of their individual characters. Shifting easily between their points of view, the author builds the relationship honestly and, at times, surprisingly…. While the romantic storyline forms the emotional core of the book, the narrative is driven by themes of boundless scientific curiosity and competitiveness, which envelopes even the young lovers….This is a novel of discovery, both scientific and personal.”

– Quill & Quire

"Our national kidlit king takes on the unlikely combo of pubescent lust and dinosaur bones....Oppel's plot pulls readers along breathlessly and his style perfectly straddles readable and literary... Reign on, King Ken."

- The Globe and Mail

“Based on the 19th-century Bone Wars, Oppel’s (The Nest) story switches rapidly between the viewpoints of Samuel and Rachel, interspersed with the legend of the T. rex. While the politics of land ownership and the dynamics between native tribes and scientists is an absorbing and well-developed layer of the novel, the thrill of the hunt and the budding relationship between Rachel and Samuel take center stage.”

– Publishers Weekly

A romantic page-turner....the historical matter of nineteenth century paleontology, of the violence enacted against the Sioux by white encroachment, and of a clever girl's yearning for education, give heft to an entertaining, thoughtful -- and sometimes downright funny -- yarn."

- Toronto Star

“Oppel is, above all, an excellent storyteller. The writing flows effortlessly, with dialogue that rings true and characters who are colourful and flamboyant but still somehow convincing…. This is a book that will appeal to both boys and girls. A thrilling adventure as well as a tender love story, Every Hidden Thing uses history and romance to stir the hearts of a new generation.
Highly Recommended.”

– CM Magazine

"Oppel’s ability to make us care about every dusty find as much as the attraction between Sam and Rachel — who share the job of narrator — is quietly impressive. This is fantastic prehistoric beasts and where to find them, with a dollop of Indiana Jones and a spoonful of Romeo and Juliet. It gets a roar of approval from this camp."

- The Sunday Times (UK)

"This breakneck palaeontological western....is a fascinating, fast-paced, rich and provocative novel. Neither palaeontology nor romance is slow or sedate in Every Hidden Thing. There is a great deal packed into this book beside the breathless contest at its heart. It might be a whirlwind romance, but there is no sense of a fairytale ending, and a strong but nuanced vein of feminism runs throughout. Rachel is a credible, determined, enforcedly self-focused character: a heroine in the mould of Frances Hardinge’s Faith, in the Costa-winning The Lie Tree. This is a warts-and-all novel, more Deadwood than Rawhide.... it brings the thrill of discovery, first love and a nail-biting chase vividly alive in this dinosaur adventure emphatically for older readers."

- The Guardian (UK)

Behind the story

Dinosaurs are so commonplace now, in museums, on the silver screen, that we almost take their magnificence for granted.

But what, I wondered, would it have been like to be that first person to dig up a massive dinosaur bone? Imagine the excitement, the torrent of questions: “What on earth have I discovered?”

My initial research on the first documented dinosaur find (Richard Owen, 1842, the Iguanadon, in London of all places!) quickly brought me to the pioneering American paleontologists Edward Drinkwater Cope and Charles Othniel Marsh. Their rivalry in the 1870s was known as the Bone Wars: between them, they named and claimed over a hundred dinosaur species, while also energetically trying to destroy each other’s careers. These two larger-than-life characters were the inspiration for the paleontologist fathers in Every Hidden Thing. And if you’ve got two fathers who hate each other, doesn’t it make sense their respective teenaged children will fall in love?

I had a lot to learn for this book. I tried to bone up on anatomy so I could recognize joints and femurs and humerii. I spent a lot of time at the museum, measuring T-Rex's and centrosaurs and pterosaurs. But I also wanted to know what it was like to swelter in the sun in search of fossils, so I managed to get myself invited on a short field expedition in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta.

This was my Indiana Jones moment. I bought hiking boots, and a hat. I wanted a bullwhip but MEC wouldn’t sell me one. The badlands terrain was a like an ancient hidden world, literally sunken below prairie level: buttes and ravines and coulees and rocks of astonishingly different textures and colours.

And mosquitoes, lots and lots of them. During my stay I got a crash course in prospecting, quarrying out fossils, and preparing them back in the lab. And I also got to ask my patient paleontologist hosts about everything from the history of paleontology, to how to identify bone -- something which I was useless at. Prospecting, I felt like a pesky cartoon character, calling out every few seconds, “Don, hey, Don, is this bone?” A glance was all it took for him. “Nope. That’s glacial erratic limestone.” “Hey, Don, how about this?” “That’s petrified wood.” “Hey, Don, I think I’ve got something big here!” “That’s a rabbit skull. It’ll be a fossil in 65 million years.”

There were a ton of other things I needed to learn about. The birth of American paleontology intersected with aggressive American westward expansion, and increasing tension with the American Indians prior to the Great Sioux War of 1876. I took pains to research the Lakota Indians, whose homelands and way of life were being stolen and eradicated, and I was fortunate to have my manuscript reviewed in advance by a Lakota reader to make sure my depictions of indigenous peoples were accurate and respectful.

During my brief time in the Badlands, one of the amazing things I learned about paleontology was that the work methods haven’t changed much in 140 years. You walk, you look, you dig, and when you find bone, you shovel. It can be tedious and sweaty, but exhilarating. After a day of prospecting, standing on a lookout, I asked my host: “If you had a machine that could see inside all these hills, would you do it?” He shook his head. “What would be the fun of that?”