Carefully researched and beautifully illustrated this exciting book sets sail with Darwin and the crew of HMS Beagle on their epic five-year voyage around the world. See why the world was shocked by his theory of evolution.

Review This book presents the inspiring and vivid story of Darwin's life in a way that makes one of the world's most important scientists and his discoveries accessible to young readers. The story of the Beagle's epic voyage is told in diary form with double page illustrations plus speech bubbles and information boxes filled with facts. The explanation of the theory of evolution at the end of the book is brilliantly simple and succinct. There is plenty of fun alongside the facts and a generous amount of yuk, sick and gore. We see the young Darwin devouring "strange meat" like fox, badger and owl and attempting to carry beetles in his mouth whilst at Cambridge; being very visibly sick off the coast of South America and running away from an extemely horrible and bloody operating theatre. This book knows how to capture young readers! The glorious watercolour and pencil illustrations bring the diary entries alive. They take us from rain forest to snow-capped mountains with images of coral reefs, amazing creatures and natural phenomena that delight the eye and feed the imagination

2009-04-22