Customer Reviews

Life Story

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My first-grade daughter has been fascinated by this book since she found the dog-eared 1962 copy in her school library last year. She's checked it out so many times that we're buying her a copy for her birthday.
It's not often you find a science book for kids that doesn't talk down to them, or leave out a lot of facts to make the book shorter or less wordy. This book has a lot of words, some of them big scientific words, but it is so elegantly written that my daughter has never lost interest. It begins with descriptions of the creation of the planet and solar system and follows the story of life on our planet through prehistoric times, to present day life on the author's farm. The illustrations are absolutely beautiful, very folk-art like, and very detailed. If your child is interested in dinosaurs, like my daughter is, this is a great book and will broaden their interest into other eras of prehistoric creatures.

This book is absolutely fabulous! It reads extremely well to preschoolers and possibly younger children as well. Even though earth science has progressed since this book's first printing, it's still a great introduction some of the basic, foundational concepts in the study of: Space/Time; Earth and the Universe; Geology and Prehistoric Life Science.

Also, the illustration's are beautiful! My 3yr. old is as fascinated by the pictures as he is by the story!

I read this book and "The Little House" by Burton when I was a child and it has been a wonderful experience to share these books with my son!

As a child this was my favorite book as well. I had it checked out of the school library so often I may as well have owned it. I was thrilled to recently find it still in print, and I ordered a copy for my kids -- and one for myself!

The artwork is incredible. There's something about the style of it that almost... psychedelic. There's a swirling flow to it, with orderly ribbons of plants and animals winding into the distance. Yet while highly stylized, the artwork at the same time offers a wonderful sense of realism. The swamps of the Carboniferous seem so dark and mysterious; the verdant forests at the opening of the Cenezoic Era are infused with the essence of life born anew. And the intricate borders around the "program" at the beginning remind one of the lovingly detailed borders one might find along the high ceiling of some Victorian-era museum.

Even after 40 years, the science behind the book holds up amazingly well. If you want to inspire a love of natural history in your children, get them this book!

I read this book almost 20 years ago in the first grade and was immediately hooked on natural history, dinosaurs, life sciences, and the like, not to mention storytelling itself. The illustrations are entrancing and the format--the history of life as a play in several acts on a world stage--is enthralling. It's highly informative, too, for a young reader (or even an old one), and it was one of the most memorable and entertaining "educational" books I read as a child.

Now out of college, I have recently repurchased it for nostalgia and read it again. It remains a wonderful work. Being from 1961, it is slightly dated in spots. For example, it says that there is no record of life 2 billion years ago, whereas today we have found lifeforms dating back twice that far. Also, the dinosaurs' extinction is attributed to a cooling climate, because at the time the meteor theory was not widely accepted.

But this of course is nitpicking. The ultimate point of the book is that it's an introduction to the history of our planet and everything on it, including us. The central message--that our own life stories fit into the grand tapestry of life's history--remains. This is a remarkable book, and paticularly if you have a young child, I highly recommend picking up a copy.

I was searching for a really good book about dinosaurs for my almost 4 year old daughter who has just developed an interest in prehistoric creatures, when I stumbled onto this book.

We own other titles by Burton, The Little House, Katy and the Big Snow, and Calico the Wonder Horse, and love them all. But I think this book is the best. Why? Because, for my daughter, who demands daily readings, it has cracked the world of science wide open, spurring question after question about everything from meteors to the different types of rock, volcanoes, weather, the solar system, and on and on. Using the format of an engaging story, Burton has managed to touch on each of these subjects, and more, and pack so much information into a mere 80-pages. But it's not just rote information, it is a story, it is a play, and it is presented in such an entertaining way that it paves the path for a young child begin a journey of discovery that is integral to a life-long love and understanding of natural history and of the composition of the world around them.

Burton's story begins 'eons and eons ago' when 'our sun was born.' Each page is laid out with the left side containing a one-paragraph description of the period of time being sampled. This is paired with a tri-color visual narrative of what is happening, be it a 5-sketch demonstration of lava erupting from the Earth's core or the evolutionary progression of invertebrate organisms, plants, or animals. The drawings create almost a (slow) motion picture to accompany the words. The left page is dedicated to a full-color scene, set behind a stage, complete with drawn-aside red velvet curtain, and a curious little man examining the different goings-on. He, too, becomes more modern as the story progresses.

Something that I love about the format of this book is that the book begins by capturing snapshots of different periods of time that are very far apart; the first two documented time periods are 560,000,000 years apart. Mid-way through the book, the scenes are only 3,200,000 apart, and finally, by the end of the book, time slows down to 100 years, then 25, then 15, then each of the four seasons, then it is slowed to days, hours, and finally the final dark minutes before the sun rises and a new dawn is upon us. Early on, as time slows, Burton introduces her family into the story, and you find that this is her life story. On the final pages, as the story she has to tell draws to a close, Burton turns the story over to you, the reader, because it is your life story too. That last poetic touch is so beautiful, so perfect, that it leaves me in awe of the woman who wrote this book.

I don't think that this book could have been written, presented, and illustrated better. Every part just 'fits.' The ending, I believe in time, will help my child to understand where she fits into this story, and perhaps she, as I do, will feel that warm swell of love toward our home, our Earth, and all the life that has walked upon it, and gratitude that she has a place among such a brilliant history.

Why don't the bookstores carry this one? In the tradition of Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, and Katy and the Big Snow, Life Story presents its main tale in VLB's characteristic artwork wrapped with interesting mini drawings. My children and I enjoyed this title, and I am considering buying several more copies to keep on hand as gifts. (This review was titled and written with the assistance of Sal, age 8.)

I am so glad to see that this book is still in print. It is my favorite book from childhood and I still have my battered copy which I hope to share with my own children some day. The book is beautifully illustrated and written. The author conveys the beauty and the grandness of Earth's origins in a paen to natural history. The illustrations are what always captured me though. They are like nesting russian dolls, each layer presents its own story and suggests new meanings. It is a great introduction to the joys of exploring our world and our history.

My 4 yr old is obsessed with this book, and subsequently, with natural history. It's a long book for bedtime, but when we are short on time, we read half of it.
Provokes impossibly complex conversations to have with your child like : what was there before the big bang? Challenge yourself and take it on. We love all of her books.

I've used Life Story in my classroom for years. My copy disappeared several years ago and it was missed every year when my students would start researching the Time Line of Life. I'm so excited that Life Story has been updated and my children will be able to use it as a resource for their work.

Granted, my son is 3, and he likes to look at pictures, and I wouldn't say that the ones in this book (drawings rather than photos) really do much for him. And he likes stories, such as the one about the gingerbread man, whereas the text in this book is completely uninteresting to him. However, I expect he'll appreciate it more once he's older. Also, it seems to be a bit heavy on modern life.