Publisher Description

All of us are part of an old, old family.The roots of our family tree reach back millions of years to the beginning of life on earth.Open this family album and embark on an amazing journey.You'll meet some of our oldest relatives--from both the land and the sea--and discover what we inherited from each of them along the many steps of our wondrous past.Complete with an illustrated timeline and glossary, here is the story of human evolution as it's never been told before.

Author Biography

LISA WESTBERG PETERS is the author of several acclaimed picture books, including Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck and The Sun, the Wind and the Rain. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota. LAUREN STRINGER has illustrated many well-loved picture books. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Review

"Evolution is what has created the living world and what keeps it going. If we do not understand evolution, we will never understand our world. How lucky our children are to have this beautiful and moving guide from which to learn!"
--Dr. Ernst Mayr
Professor of Zoology, Emeritus, Harvard University --

Prizes

Winner of Children's Books of Distinction Awards (Nonfiction) 2004
Winner of Minnesota Book Award (Children's Nonfiction) 2004

Review Quote

Kindergarten-Grade 3-Evolution is a ticklish topic. It is controversial to some for religious reasons; for others, it is a challenging concept to present to a young audience without losing scientific veracity. For one thing, young children have little concept of time-a million years might be the span between birthdays. For another, the idea of slow, evolutionary change still seems somehow equal to a magician's trick. So, accomplishing a reasonable explanation of a scientific concept and its progress through millennia is worthy of note. Peters's simple text uses the "we/us" format to place Homo sapiens in the "family" of life at its very beginnings. "All of us," she states in the first sentence of the book, "are part of an old, old family," going back to Earth's beginnings. "We've changed a lot since then." Through a simple progression, amply bolstered by Stringer's striking, large acrylics, she traces "our" family tree from unicellular organisms through amphibians, therapsids, and early mammals to early primates, hominids, and our distinct "humanness" today. Enriched by two pages of additional data and a colorful time line, the whole is rounded out by carefully written author and illustrator notes. Simpler than Stephen Webster's The Kingfisher Book of Evolution (2000) and Melvin Berger's How Life Began (Doubleday, 1990; o.p.), and perhaps easier than Joanna Cole's venerable Evolution (Crowell, 1987; o.p.), this book is a wonderful companion to Steve Jenkins's equally attractive Life on Earth (Houghton, 2002).Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY

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