My Friend

by Mo Willems · 2007

My Friend Manny is a children’s picture book created by Rutgers University undergraduate students and museum staff. It tells the story of Manny, the museum’s 11,000‑year‑old mastodon fossil, tracing his life in the Ice Age, his discovery on a New Jersey farm, and his journey to the Rutgers Geology Museum. Written for grades K‑3, the book blends narrative with scientific facts about the Pleistocene, fossilization, and geology, aiming to spark curiosity about Earth’s deep past while celebrating friendship between a child reader and an ancient creature.