Choose Your Own Evolution

If you’re looking for an original book on evolution, then this is it! I was lucky enough to see the author, Jules Howard, speak at a conference recently about his non-fiction books for young people and he was fascinating and enthusiastic about his topic, so I was delighted to be asked to review this book.

Jules is zoologist, presenter and author who writes for both adult and children’s audiences. He has a wealth of experience working in different sectors and areas of zoology so he’s perfect to explain the evolutionary tree of life, as he does with this book, to a young audience.

What this book does brilliantly is combine topic study- evolution which can often be dull or overly complex- and make it fun by turning individual animals journeys into a choose your own adventure style book.

It starts way back 570 million years ago with information on a Dickinsonia, one of Earth’s first and simplest animals. You’re then given three options about how you want it to proceed- will you choose for it to evolve sea-legs, slime or backbone? Each choice then leads to the next creature or evolutionary step and the next until your choices bring you to a ‘survivor’ animal. In a traditional choose your own adventure book, this might be when your character ‘dies’ or wins, but in this book it’s the last version of the journey- the end product of evolution. As a short example- a Sahelanthropus, an early ape, has the opportunity to either retreat to the forests and become a gorilla, or advance to the grasslands and become a human.

It’s not a book to read in page order, but it’s brilliantly crafted and beautifully illustrated by Gordy Wright. It would make for a great game to share as well as a lone reading experience. It’s detailed enough to support the study of evolution in the curriculum, but light enough to allow for leisure readers to enjoy it outside of the classroom.

It ends with a double-page spread diagram showing all the pages and all the creatures covered and which evolved to be survivors and those who went extinct. There’s also an index, glossary and a pronunciation guide.

A thoroughly enjoyable and refreshing look at the evolution of life on earth. A must read!