A Brief History of Life on Earth

Gr 2-4--There is an immediacy to Dupont's writing, effectively captured in the present tense, and consequently drawing readers into the long and fascinating story of Earth's many dramas. Of course, the dinosaur section is preceded by sections on earlier time periods, beginning with the Hadean Age (4.6-4 billion years ago). It goes on to describe each subsequent age with just a paragraph of text, accompanied by a glorious spread with labels indicating life forms that developed amid the drastic climate changes. Sure to entice prehistoric fact finders, there are plentiful references to unusual animals that no longer exist, such as the Hyracotherium, an early horse with five fingers instead of hooves. Turning the page between the Pleistocene epoch and our own Holocene epoch, readers can't help but recognize how close they really are to the earliest humans in the time line of Earth's existence. The last page serves as a warning with its sole human standing on a melting glacier. The same soft color palette is used throughout the narrative, which makes for a subtle transition as readers turn the pages. But even more effective is the physical nature of the book itself, constructed like an accordion that can fold out to 26 feet in length. One side of the foldout illustrates the progression of life on Earth while the other side serves as a time line. VERDICT In libraries, the foldout may make the book more likely a decorative display item than a read-aloud.--Gloria Koster, formerly at West School, New Canaan, CT