Few books that I read as a child or teenager have remained so close to my heart and had such a long-lasting influence on my preferences in reading and my approach to writing as Frances K. Pavel’s Archelon and the Sea Dragon from 1975, gorgeously illustrated by Jim Lamb. This tale of a prehistoric sea turtle who survives multiple encounters with a ferocious Tylosaurus only to confront monumental, geologic catastrophe is at once heart-rending and hopeful. It reads like a nature documentary that combines well-researched science with a poetic sense of emotional reality to achieve something beyond its classification as children’s literature.

Very few copies exist any more. Most are heavily worn ex-library copies. I confess to destroying one rare copy so I could scan its pages and prolong its life on the Internet, and I have since bought other used copies on eBay or Amazon only to send them to friends who have kids who are almost as obsessed with dinosaurs as I used to be and still am. I just think everyone needs a copy of this book. So here it is.

Below, you will find my scans of its pages, though I have reduced my archival-quality originals down to about 1 MB each so this page will actually load. If you can’t live without high-resolution versions for non-commercial use, then send me a message. You might also enjoy my brief essay The Way of Nature about the science and themes of this book, which you can access as a free PDF, and an audio file of me reading the story aloud.

You can discover more of Jim Lamb’s current artwork, read about his career, and even watch some time-lapse videos of him painting at JimLambStudio.com.