DJ Kristoff is a world traveler, adventurer, seeker of truth, and award-winning science teacher extraordinaire. The locations in her story are real. The science and history are real. She earned the nickname Dino Diane on a dinosaur dig with the Museum of the Rockies at Camposaur in Montana, the excavation site of the real Dr. Alan Grant of Jurassic Park, paleontologist John Horner.
Kristoff has backpacked and rafted the Grand Canyon, scuba-dived the Great Barrier Reef, ridden a camel around the Pyramids at Giza, cruised the Nile, and explored the tombs of the pharaohs. She’s trekked the outback of Australia and the tropical rainforests of Hawaii, ventured along volcanic lava flows, gone on photo safari in Tanzania, helicoptered over Victoria Falls, walked with lion cubs in the African bush, hot-air ballooned over the Maasai Mara, witnessed the male elephant gathering on the Zambezi River, and much more.
Currently living in Fort Myers, Florida, DJ Kristoff began her education career teaching eighth-grade science in Tempe, Arizona. There she founded and directed the Students for Environmental Awareness Club. Kristoff guided as many as 50 adventurous eighth graders hiking and backpacking into the deserts and wildernesses of Arizona and Utah, teaching geology, biology, anthropology, paleontology, and ethnobotany. Now, as a children’s author, she inspires middle-grade students to love nature and science with her magical books.
Kristoff has inspired hundreds of adventurers to learn how to survive in the wilds, become self-reliant, and appreciate and respect nature, and each other. As a result of her years of teaching as a master educator, she was awarded the prestigious Silver Apple Award by Channel 3 and the Dial Corporation and was the recipient of the Science Teacher of the Year by the Salt River Project for the state of Arizona.
Dino Diane’s Adventures is a magical science adventure cloaked in a historical fantasy that chronicles the author’s real-life experiences and fanciful inspirations. Saddlebags of Gold and The Secrets of the Five Rays of Light are the first two books in the Dino Diane’s Adventure series by the famous children’s author and educator. There are more adventures to come in Hawaii, Australia, Africa, and Egypt, with lots of new characters and amazing magic!
