Erin Peabody has crafted a book on Yellowstone National Park that follows a common path in telling the story of how the world's first national park came about, but which through her deep research and colorful writing rises as an entertaining and informative work that deserves a space on every park lover's bookshelf.

I came to this book somewhat suspicous, in part due to the title, and in part due to the layout that at times distractingly inserts sidebars of material, some of which has little, if any, connection to Yellowstone. Is there a link between Yellowstone and Thomas Jefferson traveling to France in the early 1800s to promote the size of North America's moose for inclusion in a book on animals in America? While it's interesting to know that Martha Maxwell was a naturalist in the 19th century, she had no connection to Yellowstone, though she did play a role in launching the art of taxidermy.

The book traveled around my house, from kitchen table to family room table, to office sideboard, and back to family room. Some books grab you from the moment you read page one, and at first this book just didn't do that.

But once I forced myself to sit down with A Weird and Wild Beauty: The Story of Yellowstone, The World's First National Park, a wonderful story came to life.

Ms. Peabody builds her book around the Hayden Expedition of 1871, a well-known journey that Ferdinand Hayden led through Yellowstone's landscape with a party of 32, one that included a young artist by the name of Thomas Moran and a young photographer by the name of William Henry Jackson.

Despite the familiarity with the expedition that many Yellowstone visitors might have, the author's deep research and her wordsmithing has created an engaging narrative, one that should hold the attention of adult readers as well as those as young as 12.

While the story mountain man John Colter told after wandering through the Yellowstone landscape during the winter of 1807-08 commonly surfaces in any discussion of Yellowstone's history, Ms. Peabody builds on it by telling us of "Daniel Potts, a trapper who traved through Yellowstone in 1827. In a letter to his brother, he wrote about a 'mush-pot' filled with beautiful white and pink clay, and craters that erupted 'pure suphor (sulfur).

"Then there was trapper Warren Angus Ferris, who complained of insomnia every time he journeyed through Yellowstone," the author goes on. "He claimed it was the noisy hot springs that kept him up, which roared through the night."

She also shows her skill for creating imagery through her words in describing the journey Hayden's team of explorers endured from Ogden, Utah, to Fort Ellis in the Montana Territory before heading down into Yellowstone.

It had been an arduous trip. The hard wooden seats and the jolting movements of the train made the travelers' bones rattle. They suffered through insomnia, motion sickness, and bad food. The stench of garlic and unbathed bodies filled the train's cramped spaces, only alleviated by the sharp smell of tobacco.

But rewards came when the men gazed out the greasy train windows. By the time the expedition group reached the huge sweep of the Great Plains, the sky widened and the scenery unfolded. As the train whistle blared, they rumbled by serpentine rivers, rolling valleys, and white-capped mountain peaks.

And this passage, concerning a trek by Hayden and two others to the summit of Mount Washburn, shows off not only her writing ability, but the details her research unearthed.

The winds 'blew terrifically,' Peale later wrote. The men had to lie flat on their stomachs to write, otherwise papers would have flown away. Peale helped hold down Elliott's drawing paper, while he hurriedly sketched the surrounding peaks and valleys. Hayden looked around, studying the scenery. The assortment of lines, contours, and jagged peaks spoke volumes about the Earth's history -- how its crust had, at various times, buckled, heaved, crumbled, and blew apart.

A Weird and Wild Beauty is a great book for middle school students growing an interest in national parks as well as earth science in general, and for adults with a love for Yellowstone who want additional insights into the early days of its evolution from initially being viewed as a fictional landscape to designation as the world's first national park.