"An endlessly fascinating and wonderfully illustrated journey through the origins of life on Earth."
With award-winning Arbuthnott and Nielsen as the creators, my expectations were high for this book. Happily, this journey through the origins of life on earth is as informative, entertaining, and beautifully presented as I hoped.
Starting with creation myths from different cultures and religions, and then different historical suggestions on the likely age of the Earth, the creation of Earth itself is fascinatingly covered. From there the book starts to look at the origins of life on Earth, discussing the fact that for centuries scientists believed that many species spontaneously reproduced.
As these massive and expected subjects are explained, snippets of interesting and unexpected facts are included, these never fail to spark delight. For example, I loved discovering that at one point some scientists argued that libraries shouldn’t be built facing south or west as winds from those directions generated bookworms!
Fossils soon become our focus, as we learn about the different types, where they’re found, and how they help us understand the behaviour and lives of prehistoric creatures. Moving us perfectly to the eternally popular subject of dinosaurs. A double-page spread of famous dino detectives is particularly interesting. The friends-to-enemies story of Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope certainly demands further investigation.
Other sections that are equally fascinating cover the five extinction events Earth has faced, Darwin, and, finally, the age of humans and how we continue to evolve.
Throughout the book, colourful illustrations and inventive page layouts break up the text, add interest and help to explain different concepts. The illustration styles used are varied but consistently fit the historical subject matter, often giving a field guide feel to the book. In other places, comic strip pages are used to illustrate key events, such as the crash landing of the asteroid that is presumed to have caused the dinosaur extinction.
This is a wonderfully readable, fascinating, and beautifully produced book, perfect for curious minds.

From the Big Bang to the abundance of life that surrounds us today, this beautiful book - the third by the award-winning duo Gill Arbuthnott and Chris Nielsen - is the story of evolution, from the very first cells to ourselves.
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the best books for 9-12 year olds · the best books for teenagers
From the Big Bang to the abundance of life that surrounds us today, this beautiful book - the third by the award-winning duo Gill Arbuthnott and Chris Nielsen - is the story of evolution, from the very first cells to ourselves. How old exactly is the Earth?
The LoveReading4Kids Editorial Team have read and reviewed From Cells to Ourselves The Story of Evolution and determined it is suitable for children aged 9-12 years old
From Cells to Ourselves The Story of Evolution features in the following genres: Featured Books for 11+ readers, Recommendations, History, Children’s / Teenage: General interest, Children’s, Teenage and Educational, Mystery / Mythology, Science, Star Books, Featured Books for 9+ readers
Hardback. £15.29, down from the £16.99 cover price. In Stock.
From Cells to Ourselves The Story of Evolution was written by Gill Arbuthnott and published by Big Picture Press an imprint of Templar Publishing
From Cells to Ourselves The Story of Evolution has 77 pages
£15.29, reduced from £16.99. In Stock.