PLAYING FAVORITES

Through the ages and for all ages Time traveling Bubba Jones series arrives at Grand Canyon

SVEA CONRAD

Did you know that there are 92 mammals, 447 types of birds, 22 species of bats and 58 reptile species in the Grand Canyon? Or that Kaibab is a Paiute word meaning “mountain turned upside down” and what the tribe calls the Grand Canyon? Or that Phantom Ranch used to have a swimming pool?

These facts are just a handful of those in The Adventures of Bubba Jones 4: Time Traveling Through Grand Canyon National Park, the newest in award-winning author Je Alt’s national park series. From thousands of feet of rock layers to the Civilian Conservation Corps-installed phone line at the bottom of the canyon, Bubba Jones makes learning engaging and immersive. And, though it’s marketed for ages 8-12, like the best children’s literature, this story has something for all ages.

The Adventures of Bubba Jones starts on the roaring Colorado River. Here Bubba’s grandpa “Papa” Lewis, dad Clark and sister Hug-a-Bug encounter geologist and explorer John Wesley Powell as an experienced Papa Lewis ferries their wooden boat through dangerous rapids.

What makes this impossible sighting possible is that young Bubba can time travel. In fact, what sets the entire Bubba Jones series apart is that he and his family can hop through history at a whim. What better educational tool than a little magic that makes young readers feel as if they are actually present for historical moments, important fi gures more than just a name on a textbook page. B u b b a ’ s special ability moves from generation to generation and is a secret only he and his family are privy to as they are tasked with using it to preserve and protect the country’s wildlands. An urgent coded message is what brings him to Grand Canyon in this book: a special telescope is missing and has likely landed in the wrong hands, putting the family secret and maybe even the very existence of the Grand Canyon in danger.

What unfolds in scenes at the South Rim, on the South Kaibab Trail, in the Hopi House and all throughout the national park is Bubba, his sister and their extended family’s journey to retrieve the telescope. They hop back in time throughout the book, learning about archeology, history, ecology, petroglyphs and architecture of the canyon along the way.

The brother and sister swim in a vast ocean 270 million years ago, long before the canyon was born of a massive tectonic shift and the Colorado River carved it out over a span of about 60 million years. They visit Mary Colter in 1935 and fi nd her overseeing construction of the Bright Angel Lodge, jump back to 1898 and watch Buckey O’Neill mull the idea of a train connecting Williams to the rim of Grand Canyon. Alt brilliantly uses every new character and setting as an opportunity to introduce new information about the natural world wonder.

Unfortunately, it is the richness of fact and story, their expert pairing on each page, that makes the scarce mentions of Native American history that much more noticeable. Though Alt does include the 11 tribes

and their “historical ties” to Grand Canyon, it isn’t until chapter two—long after mention of Lewis and Clark, the canyon’s designation as a forest reserve in 1893 and 1919 national park declaration.

The historic fi gures Bubba and Hug-aBug encounter throughout are all Anglo. Powell and Colter, O’Neill and Theodore Roosevelt, while important, could easily have shared the page with Billy Burro, who protested the creation of Grand Canyon National Park, a designation that barred the Havasupai tribe from farming as they’d done there for hundreds of years. Why, when Bubba and Hug-a-Bug travel to May 6, 1903, to see Roosevelt’s speech at the South Rim, leave out how he personally delivered the message to Burro and others that they had to leave their home? Burro held out 10 years following the national park designation, only to be forcibly removed by o cials who then tore down his home.

The shortfall regarding Indigenous history makes the characters Blaze and Song— Bubba’s cousins—all the more important. Half Navajo, it is through the siblings that Alt leads into a discussion of colonialism.

“All of the tribes here su ered through European colonization and settlement. Many tribes’ ancestral lands were taken from them.” Blaze sighed, shaking his head. “Some of their territories have been given back but not all of them.”

“We’re still here,” Song concluded. ”Grand Canyon is our home and our history, and that won’t be forgotten.”

What ultimately makes The Adventures of Bubba Jones a success, albeit with some omissions, is the agency given to youngsters Bubba and Hug-a-Bug as well as Song and Blaze. Together they are at the helm of their educational adventure, distant historical events made easier to grasp through these character’s eyes. This is a book that drums up awe and fascination, fuels dreams of a Grand Canyon hike one day and inspires young audiences to keep reading.

What a joy it would have been for those of us who grew up 20 years ago to have a Bubba Jones of our own. Alt’s national park series will hold steadfast for generations, perhaps with an Indigenous-centered sequel to come.