Customer Reviews

Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It takes guts to write a picture book. Putting your work out there to speak for you. The criticism of hundreds of thousands of adults just waiting to tear you apart. It takes even more guts to write a non-fiction picture book. Now you have to deal with parents passing over your story for, oh I dunno, "Mr. Peabody's Apples" because they're afraid that they themselves will be bored. Pompous adults like that. And finally, it takes a kind of bravery most humans would be lucky to possess to write a non-fiction picture book that sports the word, "evolution", on its cover. So please take a moment to mentally applaud the gutsy efforts of one Ms. Lisa Westberg Peters and one Ms. Lauren Stringer for their moxie laden little number, "Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story".

A delicate rendering of Lascaux acrylics on watercolor paper, the story is one of the oldest ones on earth. Peters begins, "All of us are part of an old, old family. The roots of our family tree reach way back to the beginning of life on earth. We've changed a lot since then". Slowly we learn about DNA and the birth of cells in the seas. We hear about oxygen filling the planet and how the seas rose and fell, changing the landscape. About how animals crawled up onto the land and how after an asteroid our particular branch of the family tree survived. Finally, the monkeys evolved, and we evolved out of the monkeys. The book ends with further details for the inquisitive child about each step of the family tree. A helpful timeline follows these facts at the end.

For those human beings that dislike the notion of evolution and prefer a more creation-laden viewpoint, this is not the book for you. It's pretty darn clear in the text that life began 3,800 to 3,600 million years ago. End of story. You will not find a religious note in this book. It's scientifically written and happy to remain that way. Not that the facts presented are full-proof. I may be wrong, but I don't believe the asteroid theory has ever matter-of-factly killed off the dinosaurs as it does here. Also (as more professional reviewers have pointed out) the timeline really does make it look as if it was just a hop, skip, and a jump from single celled organisms to wormlike vertebrates.

On the whole, however, this is a good informative text. Children reading it should be a little older, in order to fully grasp exactly what is being said. For them, however, this book serves as an excellent resource. The pictures are lovely and the facts are mostly on the ball. A lovely addition to any children's evolution library.

My 2 1/2 tear-old daughter loves this book! She is facinated by the bright, colorful pictures, and likes to talk about the different animals. This book serves as a starting point for discussions about what makes mammals unique, what makes vertebrates unique, and what's the difference between plants and animals. As a mother who's never given a thought to the notion of religious creation, this book is a wonderful introduction to the important question of the origin of life.

What a magnificent book for children to understand the relatedness of all things, and particularly their own connections to the living world. If we are to fully appreciate our long lineage, our place on our glorious planet, and care for other organisms that share it with us, this book is essential for both parent and child.
Highly recommended!

My daughter loves this book. She is 4 years old and is able to relate to the story and even points out parts that she has in common with the organisms in the book. The book is good at inspiring more questions about the evolutionary theory. Where the book leaves off I can fill in with what I have studied. Telling the story of evolution to very young children is not easy. It can be tricky to walk the line between being creative enough to captivate a child and still being scientifically accurate. The most easily understood part of this book is that it shows all life on this planet came from the same place, and for a 4 year old that is a good start. I would have purchased this book or one like when my 7 year old was a baby if I knew that someone was thoughtful and smart enough to write a children's book on evolution. The author, illustrator, and publisher of this book deserve an award for their wonderful efforts in helping very young children learn about evolution.

I just adore this book. The content does not read like a science introduction at all, but as a family story. Kind of a big-nose-from-Aunt-Tilly story, but way broadened to include our ancestors. My 5 year old was almost as transfixed as I was by where we picked up parts of ourselves. What a wonderful discovery book which enforces oneness with all life. The illustrations are outrageous.

This picture book proved a great addition to our resource library. With a lack of emphasis on evolution at school, we were keen to introduce the building block concepts of natural science. The rich images and fairly straight forward style entranced our four and six year old, quickly making it a requested favourite.
It has stimulated many questions from them by providing a good balance between visual interest and information about how life came about and evolved on earth.

Evolution is often a curricular hot potato. For those whose schools are reluctant to bring up the subject, this is the book for you. The text is simple and straightforward, accompanied by colorful, oversized illustrations. Our Family Tree is an ideal way to round out your child's understanding of scientific views on the origin of our 'family tree'.

A great introductory book for young kids on the topic of evolution.

I was looking for a book that would help my son (5 yrs) better understand what I believe about science and evolution as oposed to what his father believes (the classic Christian creation story). I needed something more than just telling him that I don't believe god created people and that's that. So I went searching. And this was my first hit, my first purchase, and I am SO happy with it.

We just received our package yesterday and my son and I sat and read the book. He loved it. Like another reviewer said, it is very hard for him to grasp millions of years, but I found that just explaining to him in terms of a "long time ago" a "long, long time ago" and a "long, long, long time ago" helped him get the basic idea. He asked questions, and made observations, and was fascinated by the pictures.

This book is just the start in educated him on science, but it is a good one. I've recommended it to all my similarly perplexed friends for their children.

This book manages to tell the story of evolution interesting for kids. The topic is hard even for many adults and yet the book achieves to be interesting. My five year old can keep his attention on the book (I can read the book in one go). Pictures are interesting and the timeline tracker is useful. My son likes to tell the story to his nanny using the timeline tracker and the pictures. The author has two more science books for kids, which I would also recommend.