Reddit reviews Cruisin' the Fossil Freeway: An Epoch Tale of a Scientist and an Artist on the Ultimate 5,000-Mile Paleo Road Trip

Awesome! I also wanted to be a paleontologist since I was in kindergarten, and I am so thankful to my parents who helped me to follow my dreams! We were (and still are) members at our local museum, The Field Museum in Chicago, so I got to go on members night behind the scenes tours and meet real scientists. We also did all sorts of paleontology activities around Chicago and also while on vacation. I definitely would not have become a paleontologist without my parents support.

Tell your daughter that being a paleontologist is an amazing career and that she should follow her dreams! Take as many science classes as she can. Biology and geology are critical, but chemistry, physics, math and statistics are also very important. Art and drawing in particular are also important because they help you to be keener observers of the world around you. Spend lots of time outdoors, thinking about how the natural world works today. Maybe have her make her own field notebook, where she can record her observations and sketches and then more detailed notes as she learns about what she is seeing? A good birthday present might be "Cruising the Fossil Freeway" by Kirk Johnson and Ray Troll (https://www.amazon.com/Cruisin-Fossil-Freeway-Scientist-Ultimate/dp/1555914519).