THE DEEPEST DIG

Undeterred by scoffing grown-ups, a child unearths a prehistoric treasure in his backyard.

His parents laugh at Caden’s news that he’s found a treasure sticking out of the ground. In front of Caden’s whole class, his teacher rashly vows to eat his hat if there’s anything there. But with help from his neighbor Martha and the winch on her truck, Caden astounds the skeptics by determinedly pulling a pile of big bones out of the ground and, with a little guesswork, assembling a fossil mammoth: “Surprise!” Several extra and out-of-place bones in the climactic reveal will raise chuckles, as will closing news stories about how, while the skeleton, which has been sold to a museum for a “record price,” will be going on tour with Caden’s family, a certain teacher will be sponsoring a hat-eating contest to raise funds for a paleontology club. The sparely told tale, inspired by a similar actual discovery, may in turn inspire young readers to take closer looks at their own supposedly familiar surroundings. Snowden-Fine illustrates Smith’s understated tale with naïve-style paintings rendered in a flat-perspective with broad swaths of color. A particularly striking spread depicts a dream in which towering mammoths walk along streets lined with row houses, with Caden, his dog, his parents, and Martha riding atop them. Caden is a child of color with interracial parents; his classmates are diverse, and the teacher and Martha both have pale skin.

Score one for quiet persistence.