Customer Reviews

The Beast in You!: Activities & Questions to Explore Evolution (Kaleidoscope Kids Books (Williamson Publishing))

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I thought this book presented the subject of evolution in an even-handed, thought provoking and entertaining fashion. By pointing out our "beastly vestiges," (tailbones, goose bumps, canines) the author illustrates the principles of evolution in a way that involves the reader and promotes further questioning. I also like the fact that the author did not ignore differing viewpoints such as creationism.

I was impressed with the clarity of explanations in the text of this book. Evolution is a complicated process to convey to young people, and this book has done a great job. The discussion of vestiges of our ancestors (hair, canines...) was fascinating to my kids and to me.

The humor was clever without being over-the-top. Great choice for quite a long age-range. I do agree with the 7-14 guide.

With the right amount of parent involvement this is probably good for starting at preschool age and going up to about 14, the older kids working more on their own. This is definitely an activity book more than an informational book. They do bring up the "evolution controversy" and they go a step further than the Silverstein's Evolution Book in trying to make it compatible with those who might have more exposure to creation, with statements like "Most of us need science and faith in our lives to care for one another and for our earth." or commenting that the bible "has guided millions of people toward being better human beings and living better lives" this is my least favorite thing about the book. In order to lessen the ruffling of Christian feathers, by specifically mentioning the bible and how it makes them better human beings, they took a little poke at all those people who do not follow the bible, because they either believe the teachings of another religion or because they do not believe at all. I don't really feel a "science" book should be reassuring people that they can be true to their faith and still accept certain scientific principles. Leaders of their faith should do so if they choose to, or people with those worries can look for books under religion and spirituality to deal with such concerns.

Given the fact that today's leading scientists cannot agree on many aspects of evolution, packaging that theory as a fact and marketing it as a fun activity book for children is a slippery slope. One of the foundations of science is proposing a theory and then setting out to prove or disprove that theory. That has not been done with evolution in (even thoroughly biased) modern science! Shameful that we teach our children WHAT to think, not HOW to think. The whole book is contrived and ridiculously unreadable to me since it indoctrinates assumptions as fact.

The great question of all time is, "Who is man and when did he come from?" I think this book gives a fair portrait of what evolution is about. It tells kids point blank that man and ape have more in common than co-existing on the planet. This book teaches children that their great, great, great, great... (keep going...great, great grandmothers were not human. It even invited them to examine themselves in a mirror and realize the "beast" they really are. I read this book with my children ages 9 and 11, to show them what evolution teaches. My family is Christian and we believe that in the begining God created the heavens and the earth... and that God formed man, and created man as a special creation and from the first man and first woman all men and women came into life. This is very different than what evolution teaches. I found it interesting that the writers do mention the Christian religion more than once, often apologetically. Comments like, the Bible "has guided millions of people toward being better human beings and living better lives", served to validate the value of the Christian religion in history, and the core values of the faith. Saying that the bible has served to make us "better human beings" and helping mankind in "caring for one another and for our earth" really kinda tell it like it is; but then, the general overtone of even mentioning Christianity on the pages was to show how it is an old, outdated concept. This book, even if you only read the title, is a great example of what children today are being taught by proponents of evolution, and what is shaping the growing minds and hearts of young people today.