It's Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday with a review of Time Traveling Through Yellowstone National Park: The Adventures of Bubba Jones by Jeff Alt and illustrations by Hannah Tuohy

Time Traveling Through Yellowstone National Park: The Adventures of Bubba Jones by Jeff Alt and illustrations by Hannah Tuohy 
Publisher:  Beaufort Books
Format:  Paperback
Number of pages:  200
Publishing:   May 23rd, 2023
Source:  Rebecca Grose from SoCal Public Relations

Opening Line: "Hold on!"

Time Traveling Through Yellowstone National Park is the fifth book in the Adventures of Bubba Jones series written by author and hiking expert, Jeff Alt. Other books in the series have included visits to the Great Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah National Park, Acadia National Park, and the Grand Canyon.  They offer a fun way to explore the National Parks and are both informative and entertaining.  

Bubba Jones and his family are part of a legendary time traveling family, whose mission is to preserve and protect the National Parks.  In this latest book, Tommy "Bubba Jones" and his sister, Jenny "Hug-A-Bug" are on a family vacation in Yellowstone National Park where they had planned to go for a few hikes before attending their family reunion.  Their plans are thrown askew when Grandpa Lewis receives a mysterious note requesting their help in solving a mystery.  It seems that sometime in the past three families within the Jones line had united three of their magical artifacts and it created a magical force.    Drawing from ciphers, portals through time and letters from the past, Bubba, Jenny and Papa Lewis must retrace their ancestors' steps and reunite the artifacts once again to continue to preserve and protect the National Parks.

Using the families journal they're able to travel through time and witness events as they unfolded in the past, like going back over 600 million years to see the forests before they became petrified or going to 1894 to see why the Bison were wiped out.  The book captures many historical events, such as witnessing President Rosevelt give a speech at the dedication of the Roosevelt Arch and meeting the Buffalo Soldiers Bicycle Corps on the Minerva Terrace at Mammoth Hot Springs in 1896, which was especially enjoyable to read about as I'd never heard about them before.  The story is very detailed, including facts about the animals found in the park, different explorers, even which presidents have visited.  Alt explains the science behind hydrothermal activity of the geysers and hot springs and even gives many tips on keeping a safe distance from the animals in the park.  This would be especially fun to read if you were hiking or camping in Yellowstone, I can envision someone crossing off the recommended list of places to see or exploring the many hiking trails Alt listed.  Even using the map that's included at the back of the book.  There are discussion questions and even a full bibliography.  I'd say the only thing that I would've liked is if the ciphers wouldn't have been solved out for you, it doesn't really allow you to decode them yourself, which would've been way more fun.  The curriculum guide is nicely broken down into social studies, and science and would be extremely helpful to use as a teaching tool.   The black and white illustrations by Hannah Tuohy are lovely and I'm hoping to see Glacier Park covered in a future book.  A very pleasant way to explore the National Parks.  I know I plan to take the book with me the next time I go to Yellowstone.    

**A huge thank you to Rebecca Grose for the print copy of the book.**   

I hope you'll check out all the other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge's blog HERE