This article was written by John Chadwick—School of Arts and Sciences and can be accessed here.
Faculty, staff and students collaborate on children’s book “My Friend Manny”
"My Friend Manny" weaves science and history into a work of fiction for children.
He roamed the Earth thousands of years ago, navigating his massive, elephant-like body through North American forests and using his tusks to strip the bark off trees for his dinner.
Even in death, he captivated anyone who saw him: New Jerseyans paid 10 cents apiece to view his big bones at county fairs and circuses in the 19th century.
Now, too, at the Rutgers Geology Museum, where Manny the Mastodon’s 13-foot tall fossil skeleton has stood for 130 years, countless visitors still marvel at his magnificent frame.
The signature showpiece of the Rutgers Geology Museum, the Mastodon’s skeleton stands 13-feet tall.
“There’s this moment when students or little kids or even older adults walk in and they see this huge thing, and they’re like ‘Oh my, what is that?’” said museum director Lauren Neitzke-Adamo. “I have seen it play out thousands of times.”
And now his story is coming out in print, with My Friend Manny, a children’s book written and illustrated by Rutgers students and museum staff to be published this spring by Rutgers University Press. Copies of the hardcover book will be available at the museum, and a book launch party is scheduled for May 9.
It was Neitzke-Adamo who decided it was high time to share the story of Manny—the museum’s signature showpiece—with the rest of the world.
“I have always thought it would be great to write a kid's book about something geology related,” said Neitzke-Adamo, a professor of earth and planetary sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences. “And I was fortunate to have an army of students who do art, science, writing and history, and who put the hard work in to make this all possible.”
The book, which weaves science and history into a work of fiction for children in grades K-3, was planned and put together over several years and reflects the contributions of numerous graduate and undergraduate students, many of whom served as interns or volunteers at the museum.
Working with Neitzke-Adamo as co-lead on the project was Carol McCarty, a historian who serves as the university’s program manager for the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act. McCarty helped oversee deep dives into the Special Collections and University Archives, teasing out intriguing bits of history about the mastodon and the museum that are included in the book.
Lauren Neitzke-Adamo, Rutgers Geology Museum Director and a professor of earth and planetary sciences.
“She found out the farmer who found the mastodon put the bones in a box and took it to circuses and fairs around New Jersey and charged people 10 cents admission to see the bones,” Neitzke-Adamo said.
At the book’s heart is the story of a young girl who greets Manny by name during a field trip to the museum and later discovers a letter tucked into her backpack that she believes was composed by the mastodon himself, though discerning readers may see otherwise.
“When you talked to me today, for the first time, I felt like I might have found a friend,” the letter said.
What follows is a first-person narration of Manny’s life and death – a saga that goes back to the Pleistocene Epoch, or the Great Ice Age, which began about 2.6 million years ago. Mastodons, distant cousins of elephants, were mammals who foraged in wooded environments and became extinct when the Earth’s climate started warming about 11,000 years ago.
Manny’s bones were unearthed in 1869 by New Jersey farmer Joseph Hackett of Mannington. The discovery was dubbed the “Mannington Mastodon,” and Hackett would display the bones at county fairs and circuses.
Hackett sold the bones for $300 to George Cook, the pioneering 19th century Rutgers professor who founded the geology museum. The bones were later reassembled by Ward’s Science, a company that’s still around today.
Manny took his place at the museum in 1896, and to this day is the only fully articulated Mastodon fossil in the state.
Still, as the story tells it, his was a lonely life. And the letter that the young girl receives ends with a plea for friendship.
“I thought maybe if I wrote these letters . . . you would come back to visit me someday and be my friend.”
In the end, the girl returns to the museum, but as a grownup who is entering Rutgers as a first-year student. She walks confidently into the museum during New Student Orientation where she sees Manny and declares: “Hello old friend.”
For Neitzke-Adamo, the book reminds her of her own childhood experiences of going to national parks and museums and becoming inspired to pursue geology.
It’s a story that’s universal, she said.
“It’s all about how the things that we see as children stick with us,” she said. “So, it’s a little bit of a love letter to that spark that ignites our passion when we are little kids.
“Those sparks might seem insignificant to the adults around them, but they leave a lasting impression on our children.”
My Friend Manny was funded through the SAS Interdisciplinary Research Team Fellowship program, which is supported by Rutgers alumnus Alan Grossman.