April 2022, Puffin, Hardback, Ebook, Review copy
Book Summary from Penguin
Take your seats for the ENTIRE history of Planet Earth, as we take a
whistle-stop tour from the birth of Earth, to the age of bacteria, the
era of dinosaurs . . . to the moment of people (blink and you'll miss it).
Narrated by a friendly troop of insects and with mind-blowing, lively
illustrations, this illustrated non-fiction book will entertain and
educate, as we put on a show, the greatest show, the show of the evolution of life on Earth.
Nayu's thoughts
Our planet has been around for a phenomenal amount of time. Often history looks at more modern issues, but The Greatest Show on Earth focuses more what happened many millions of years ago rather than ancient civilisations. It looks at how the earth's creatures evolved to meet the changing atmosphere. The style is as a circus act with several cute creatures (even if in real life they might have some readers including myself squealing and running far from them) as the performers. There is a timeline at the bottom of the page to help keep perspective on how far back the current era is. In the margins on each page there are further details about the talked about era with fascinating facts to learn about.
The watercolour style which is in a sort of muted tone suits the feel of the book and is a pleasure to look at. There is humour in both the text and the images themselves, which will make the information more palatable for younger readers. Stopping to think of all that's happened is quite a marvelous feeling. Even now, millions of years on there are constantly new discoveries about the past which is an important part of our present. It's not all dinosaurs or amoebas, there are many other almost mythical creatures (sadly no unicorns) that I had forgotten about from when I learned about this in school. The Greatest Show On Earth is by far better than a dull textbook, and I feel is a companion book to a home library encyclopedia as facts presented in a fun way are so much easier to learn about and remember. Hopefully this will interest younger readers in historical science!
Suggested read
Take a step back in time to 2010 and check out one of Mini's fiction books:Three by the Sea by Mini Grey (Children's, Picture book, 5 years +, 9/10E)
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