The Tree of Life: A Book Depicting the Life of Charles Darwin- Naturalist, Geologist & Thinker

Genre: Biography
Critique of Genre: This is a very thorough example of a biography because it tells of Charles Darwin’s life from the time he was a little boy and his father wanted him to be a doctor or clergyman when all he wanted to do was be outdoors enjoying and learning more about nature.

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This book is all about his life, explorations and findings.
Characterization: Charles Darwin is a very round character because we get to see not only how he acted and was seen in the public eye, but we get some insight into his person life at home with his family and some of his ideas and beliefs while he researched.
Media: pen and ink

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The Tree of Life has a dream-like quality. Reading excerpts of Darwin's journals and letters as well as supplementary text and sublime illustrations by Peter Sis, it I almost felt like I were Darwin myself looking back on my life, and God was I cool! Sis does a superb job of portraying Darwin as a

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complex character, from a headstrong child to adventure-seeking young man aboard the H.M.S. Beagle, to family man and scientific pioneer. This book is appropriate for children and young adults, though I don't know how well it would work as a class read-aloud. Students could read it from cover to cover or pick and choose memories and events in Darwin's life as if they were flipping through the pages of a diary. It's hard to imagine students looking at these illustrations and not wanting to learn more about Darwin.

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For this lavishly illustrated biography on the man who formulated the theory of evolution, Sís based himself on Charles Darwin's own many detailed notes, letters and various writings. We follow Darwin from birth to his student days and then his five-year voyage on the Beagle which took him around

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South America, to South Africa and Australia, among other places and during which time Darwin spent much time on dry land collecting plant and animal samples. This voyage eventually led him to formulate his theory of evolution, something which he hesitated for a long time to publish because he knew that it would be badly received by religious institutions. Each spread is richly illustrated and brimming with information, almost too much information for my liking, which wouldn't have been a problem had I not found it difficult to navigate through it. This wasn't my favourite book by Peter Sís so far, but it is an interesting and very beautiful to look at overview of the famous naturalist's life.

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This biography tells the story of the life of Charles Darwin from his early days in school to his five year voyage around the world on the H.M.S. Beagle through his formulation and publication of his theory of evolution by means of natural selection and afterward when he published a number of other

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works. The books text is organized into three categories that are repeatedly used, his public life, private life and secret life, used to show how his professional life was separate from his developing revolutionary theory. The book is also packed with lavish and beautiful illustration which makes the book very appealing to young readers of upper elementary and middle school age for which this book was likely designed. The illustrations in fact may be too prominent because although very artisticly impressive, the information becomes hard to follow at times, especially in the middle of the book where his travels are detailed. I could see students neglecting this part of the book or at least the content and simply focusing on the included art. When text is well readable due to good font and size and placement the tone is clear, neutral and of an accessible level. I would use this book in a science class in talking about evolution and its originators but probably only as an introduction meant to captivate the interest of the students. After the visual benefits of this book were taken advantage of I would shift to clearer more content oriented texts to teach about Darwin and the process of evolution.

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"The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin" was an informative biography that featured redone pages from Charles Darwin's notebooks focusing on his travels on the Beagle, his family life, and the other books he wrote. It featured a lot of captions for further information.

It used drawings and maps to

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further explain about Darwin and his works. I believe this would be a difficult book to follow as a child due to the fact that so much of the text was written in captions. One part of the text that I found interesting was the size. His public life was written in bold print. His private life events were no longer in bold and a little smaller. Parts that the author referred to as his secret life were written even smaller. I found that to be a great use of text size that i have not seen used regularly.

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This book is an excellent example of possibility of popularization of science through all sorts of people.

A lovely picture book that is a surprisingly detailed biography of Charles Darwin from his childhood up to the last major work he did (on earthworms). It especially covers the voyage of the Beagle and how he came to formulate the ideas in On the Origin of Species. While I prefer Starry Messenger by

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the same author, all of his books are worth a look. This would be a good introduction to Darwin for older children.

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This is a very cool book that uses both written text and visual images and diagrams with captions to tell the story of Charles Darwin's life and his contributions to science. The use of images that appear to be from his time is a very unique way to present information. This text could be used in

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upper elementary and middle school grades and would be a great contribution to the classroom.

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I found the book to be very informational and interesting. This book can be very confusing at times which make make it difficult for young children to understand and follow. However, the illustrations are absolutely incredible.

The material for the book is drawn from Darwin's letters, his autobiography, and the first edition of On the Origin of Species, so the research is sound. It is the presentation that I had trouble with, ironically enough. Although the topic was interesting and the drawings had potential, Sís tried

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to pack so much into 37 pages that the type and the illustrations are very small. One spread is comprised of 32 rectangular squares, each one designed as a page. To be honest, I thought this one disappointing after reading some of his other books.

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I really like the way Peter Sís does biographies. Lovely illustrations (although I liked the ones in Starry Messenger even better). They include quotes from the subject of the biography, and I think they're done very well so that it feels like you're hearing him speak. I'm hoping Sís has more

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that I can go look up.

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This book, subtitled “A Book Depicting the Life of Charles Darwin” presents the life of iconoclast and scientist Charles Darwin and his contributions to our understanding of the process of natural selection and of the evolution of living things.

Darwin is of course best known for his theory of

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the science of evolution. Darwin published his ideas with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of species.

Sís begins with Darwin’s childhood, moving on to his time as a medical student, and the voyage around the world on the H.M.S. Beagle that provided Darwin with the materials to form the basis of his discoveries.

As usual, the drawings by Sís are outstanding, and include excerpts from Darwin’s journals about the voyage and what he found on it, such as descriptions of many unique species, and a collection of fossil bones. As Darwin wrote:

“The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important event in my life and has determined my whole career . . . I owe to the voyage the first real training or education of my mind. I was led to attend closely to several branches of natural history, and thus my powers of observations were improved, though they were already fairly developed.”

Much of the text is divided into three sections: “Public Life,” “Private Life,” and “Secret Life.” Why secret life? Because his theory of evolution constituted a revolution in thinking, one that was extremely polarizing and controversial. He was afraid to publish, and only did so when he feared that a rival, Alfred Russel Wallace, might beat him to it.

Darwin’s theories were fiercely attacked by the religious establishment, and in particular the Bishop of Oxford, who was appalled at the proposition that man could be descended from an ape.

But Darwin persisted, and eventually of course, his ideas were vindicated.

Peter Sís, children’s book author/illustrator, is known for his picture books that aren’t really just for children. In this tribute to Darwin, once again as in other books he celebrates the power of ideas - particularly when they are resisted by the authorities - and the courage of those who promulgated those ideas.

The illustrations by Sís are standouts; made from fine pen and ink and watercolors, they are detailed evocations of historical documents from Darwin’s time and and truly wonder-inspiring. He also incorporates excerpts of handwritten passages from Darwin’s notebooks, diaries, correspondence, and published writings. In addition, there are charts, maps, and a gatefold spread highlighting the ideas presented in The Origin of Species.

Evaluation: This book with its mesmerizing pictures teaches some important lessons about truth, courage, and persistence even when it may result in social censure and widespread calumny.

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The best children's biography of Charles Darwin. Factually correct, outstanding, clever illustrations.

Another marvelous book for young readers by Peter Sis. Not so much a biography to be read as an exploration in words and art of a life to be explored and browsed. Highly recommended for middle and high school readers.