The Mystery of the Ginger Fluff

For grown-ups

A tuft of ginger fluff turns up by the museum's shut door, and your child goes back in time to solve the mystery.

What your child practises

• Slow, patient looking, and noticing what others miss
• How colours and stripes may help an animal hide
• That some dinosaurs had fluff, but no wings

Listen for

Your child saying how the little dinosaur hid, or how the fluff got into the museum.

Your part

• Use an Ask when your child wants to talk; skip it when the story is carrying them along
• The fossil and its fluff are real; the door, and the dinosaur rubbing against it, are the story

Take it off the screen

Find two feathers outside, a soft fluffy one and a stiff one. Which would keep you warm? Which could help a bird fly?

Where the facts come from

• Natural History Museum: Sinosauropteryx
• Australian Museum: Sinosauropteryx prima
• The Conversation: We discovered this dinosaur had stripes

The Fossil Door

Book 4 in this series

View this series

• Book 1: The Runaway Egg
• Book 2: The Longest Neck
• Book 3: Three Horns and a Frill
• Book 4: The Mystery of the Ginger Fluff (this book)

Your child's name is visiting Dr. Okafor, who studies fossils. By the old door lies a tuft of ginger fluff. "That wasn't here yesterday," she says. "No one has used this door all week. But last night, I heard it creak." "Something came through!" whispers their Pet. "But what?"

Dr. Okafor looks at the fluff through her magnifying glass. She frowns. "It isn't like any feather I've studied," she says. She hands your child's name the magnifying glass and turns the brass key. Clunk. "Come back through this door when you hear the third bell. Bring back one true thing you noticed. And never touch a dinosaur."

The old door has a brass dial. Wherever it stops, the door opens onto long ago. Click, click, click. "Jurassic!" shouts their Pet. "Jurassic!" The dial stops. "Not this time," laughs Dr. Okafor. "The Cretaceous! A hundred and twenty-five million years ago, in China. It's cooler there than you might expect."

Their Pet is first through the door, as always. Your child's name steps after, into cool, fresh air. Tall pointed trees stand all around, and ferns as big as umbrellas. In the middle is a sunny clearing with a little stream. Behind them, the door swings almost shut. Your child's name keeps the fluff safe in a pocket, to compare.

Your child's name looks up at a tree with a fat, scaly trunk, like a giant pineapple. Next to it, a fern grows as tall as a house. "It's chilly," says your child's name, rubbing both arms. "Dr. Okafor was right." Their Pet shivers. "Some fluff would be nice."

By the stream, your child's name spots tiny footprints pressed into the mud, each with three toes. And over there, behind a bush, something striped flicks out of sight. "Which way should we look?" asks their Pet.