Books On Film | Bones

The television show Bones, starring Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz, has been on the air since 2005. The show follows forensic anthropologist Temperance "Bones" Brennan (Deschanel) and FBI agent Seeley Booth (Boreanaz) as they solve murder cases.

The show is based on the Temperance Brennan books by mystery author Kathy Reichs. Reichs herself is a forensics anthologist as well as a writer, professor, and producer on the show Bones.

The Temperance Brennan books began in 1997 with Déjà Dead and now there are fifteen books in the series with more to come. The television show and the books differ in dramatic ways. The Brennan in the books is more closely modeled after the author. She is older than her television counterpart, works as the Director of Forensic Anthropology in the Canadian province of Quebec, and partners with the Quebecois police. In the television show, she is an anthropologist at the fictional Jeffersonian Institute (modeled after the Smithsonian Institute) in Washington, DC and she consults with FBI.

The television program not only showcases Brennan's anthropology skills, but also the skills of her fellow Jeffersonian scientists in solving cases. This includes entomology, forensic art, pathology,  psychology, and archeology to help solve cases. If you like to see science applied to real world situations this might be the show for you.

Even with the differences between the books and the show I believe if you like one you will also enjoy the other. Assuming murder, mayhem, and anthropology interest you, of course!

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[Covers courtesy of LibraryThing]  
[Author/Show/Book Source: KathyReichs.com]
[Titles in order: Good Reads - Temperance Brennan series]  

Learning | Dem Bones

SSJCPL carries a children's magazine, Ask! : Arts and Sciences for Kids, which lends itself to lesson planning for teachers and parents.  Each issue has a particular theme; the October 2012 issue is called "Skeleton Stories." The contents range from an x-ray themed episode of their "Nestor's Dock" comic, to the difference between endo- and exoskeletons; seashells; how bones heal; the role of bones in archaeology; and even cultural significance, with the Mexican Dia de los Muertos.

Children in grades 4 through 8 will probably benefit most from this magazine, but some of these ideas may be adapted by thoughtful parents in lessons for younger children. There's a nice balance here, between scientific facts and artistic representation of these ideas. Children are encouraged to imagine what the skeletons of non-animal things would look like, if they had them. They can draw a picture of its skeleton, and submit it to ASK!  for possible publication, through their October Contest, "Skeletons in the Closet."

The themes of past issues of ASK! have included robots, electricity, numbers, wind and caves.  Any issue of the magazine will provide inspiration for exploring a subject from many sides; it's sure to inspire everybody from science buffs to budding artists and poets.