** spoiler alert ** A great book for the adventurous child, especially one who loves creepy crawlies and other strange animals. Here's the scoop: Dr. Wendell Wellington Wiggins is an English paleozoologist (studying very ancient animal remains) who, in 1850, decides to embark upon a voyage to escape people and search for fossils that will exhibit just how wondrous animals can be. He catalogs his thirty-five year journey, including maps of his dig sites and drawings of his theoretical creatures (based on the fossils he finds, and exactly where he finds them). After finding a Chiroptera Vicugna Pacosis, or fruit bat alpaca hybrid, early on in the Amazon, Dr. Wiggins adopts this creature as a pet, whom he names Gibear after the sound he makes. Dr. Wiggins and Gibear travel the world together, finding exciting new fossils and animals, saving each other's hides on several occasions. Yet, despite all of the discoveries they make, and the fame Dr. Wiggins may gain, he realizes that the true purpose of the journey is to find that some things defy scientific explanation. This is a great book for parents and kids to read together. The book is neatly laid out into geographical regions, then into animals, so finding a stopping point proves to be easy. Also, it is fun to discuss the crazy creatures, and imagine what they would be like.