Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story

For the past year my four year old has asked about evolution. Her curiosity is insatiable. She currently reads on a 4th grade level but she's not necessarily emotionally or psychologically mature enough to comprehend material at the same level as her reading ability. This book is perfect. It's both informative and easy to understand. It's a simplified version of evolution but not overly simplified. The illustrations are beautiful and the storyline flows comfortably. I highly recommend for both early and advanced young readers. If your children are naturally curious about their evolutionary beginnings this is the book. You won't be disappointed.

I have two daughters ages 2 and 4. They both love this book. My daughter had been asking me where people came from and I had a really really hard time putting it into ANY terms that she could at all understand (I have a BS in Biology with a minor in biological anthropology which is basically the study of primates and human evolution SO I had a heck of a time filtering the information and putting it into appropriate terms for a 4 year old). So I started looking for story books to help me out. I found this on Amazon so I decided to give it a try. The first time I read it my 4yo looked at me and said "that's the truth, isn't it mommy?" and I said "yep. It sure is".This really is a great book, the illustrations are great and it simplifies things in a way little kids can kind of get. They don't have a concept of "millions" of years, or really any time period of longer than a millisecond (amiright?) so it's still tricky, but this book gets close.I agree with a previous reviewer that this book is very limited in the ages of children who will be interested in it. There is very little scientific information in it and as a result kids over the age of 5 or 6 will have zero interest in this. It is for the preschool audience.

Perhaps the most fundamental question is: "where did we come from?". This wonderful book addresses that question head on from a secular, scientific point of view, starting with the first life forms on Earth. It walks us through the major evolutionary steps along the path, and ends up with us humans. Along the way, it discusses our ancestors of the period, and what is new about them (forelimbs, lungs, warm bloodedness, walking upright). It also captures critical events in the history of life on earth (e.g. the great dying at end of Permian, just before the dinosaurs). About 2 billion adults on this planet would learn a lot by reading this book, but it is just perfect for little kids. The prose is artfully and clearly written, and the illustrations are simple but appealing. I have never seen a book that teaches our evolutionary heritage more clearly to a young audience! My kids wanted me to read it to them multiple times.

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.

My 1st grader has been asking about human evolution. This is a great introduction to the concept with beautiful illustrations. The storytelling of "we/us" was a good way to keep them engaged. It is a little light on hard science, but the notes in the back expand on the concepts and are a good starting place for additional lessons on the subject.

An evolution story for kid friendly texts and pictures

A classmate of our kindergartner told him that people came from apes. Where is a parent to begin? This book helped. It was a little lighter on the hard science than we would have liked, but it's beautifully illustrated. For our purposes (recognizing maybe we shouldn't attempt to teach a 5 yo evolution), I could have used some pictures that were a little more basic and showed step-by-step adaptations. There's a lot of good information at the end of the book, but it's all in little snippets on a couple of pages. We were able to use some of that, but it was a little tough.

The book is excellent but I had to stop after the first few pages and explain the Big Bang because my almost five year old - who was taught last week that we came from dirt - kept saying "that's not true" on every page. So you need to pair this one with a book on the Big Bang if your child has been exposed to the Genesis version of creation. Otherwise they won't be able to make sense of this, as it starts with cell life and does not discuss the Big Bang. I don't want to push my child into disbelief of what he had been taught religiously - I want him to make up his own mind. I myself believe in God, though not the Genesis version of creation. So I was careful to explain that evolution is what most scientists believe, and we paired our reading with the Genesis story so he can compare them. Then we did a critical evaluation of the Genesis story. E.g.: I asked him to tell me what day light and darkness were created (day 1) and what day the sun, moon and stars were creates (day 4). And asked him how there could have been light and darkness, and days and nights, from day 1, when there was no sun, moon or stars. I prepped this discussion over the last couple years with some excellent books about other cultures' beliefs about Creation. We will go over those again soon to reinforce the discussion tonight about how people believe different things about how we came to be. I highly recommend Gerald McDermott books about other cultures to pair with (Anansi the Spider and Raven come to mind).

My 4 yr old loves this book. The illustrations are beautiful. A gentle way to introduce evolution to small kids.

It tells the story of life on Earth and human evolution in a way that is easily digested by a child. The story is very well structured and ends with a sort of summary to make it easier for children to comprehend. It has a lovely narrative and it's beautifully illustrated.

While visiting Mysore zoo in India, I tried to explain my 5 years old daughter about the evolution of human beings. This was followed with countless questions and most of them made sense, Like whether she was a monkey when she was born or all monkeys at present will turn to humans soon. So I started looking for some books to appease her inquisitiveness which could help her to understand the history of evolution. And I bought this one. I must say it has the potential of fulfilling the purpose. I liked the way the book started, the vivid pictures with which they have explained such a complicated thing to a 5 years old. My 10/10 for the author. The condition and delivery from Amazon was amazing too!

I was looking for something to get to read to my kids to explain evolution to them. I am not sure after reading this book to them many times that they really understand. I am not sure that a child that is at the level to enjoy this book would really get anything out of it. For instance they talk about 'our family' and how it has changed from the beginning of life on earth, but with no mention at all of natural selection. I know this is kind of a 'hard' concept, but without it, it just seems all very, very mysterious. Still it is very beautifully illustrated and the story is nice to read. My kids do ask for it as their bedtime story every now and again.

Lets start with the art. It's just beautiful. Some of the pictures are really very beautiful and thoughtfully composed. Then there's the way the story of life is told. I just think it's done so skillfully. Admittedly allot of detail is skiped over or just aluded to but the book is for kids and I think this actually reflects the authers ability in crafting a good narative rather than get bogged down in detail.I think the overall point of the book is to show the main milestones in evolution while conveying the message that all life is one. That once upon a time one of your ancient relatives swam around in an ocean and another of your relatives crawled around in his belly in and looked like a big lizard and these guys are family members!It's great I loved it. not sure my 4 year old quite gets it yet she might be a bit young but it's a beautiful book and she really loved the pictures.