Review by Booklist Review
Only Ms. Frizzle could turn a classroom unit on family trees into an expedition encompassing the history of life in general and our species in particular. She leads her students on another magical field trip, traveling 3.5 billion years back in time. Turning into single, simple cells within the sea and observing DNA and cell division, the kids discuss their shifting shapes as the cells transform into increasingly complex organisms, such as tiny sponges, jellyfish, worms, fish, amphibians, and land animals. As the first mammals, they hide from dinosaurs, then change into primates, monkeys, apes, early humans, and modern humans. Back in the classroom, a tree-like biological chart shows many other branches of life-forms springing from the same simple cells. An appended section sums up the evidence for evolution and how it works. The book succeeds in explaining evolution simply while communicating a sense of the immensely long time involved, traced on a spiral time line appearing at intervals. Information appears in text boxes, student reports, and Ms. Frizzle's comments, while the students' speech balloons add childlike humor. Created with pen, watercolor, colored pencil, and gouache, Degen's colorful artwork illustrates the concepts clearly, while adding enormously to the book's sense of fun. A landmark volume in this exceptional science series.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Horn Book Review
Ms. Frizzle's latest adventure (published posthumously for Cole, alas) takes her class, joined by newcomer Bo who's visiting from China, back 3.5 billion years in Earth's history, then forward through the path of human evolution. Before they board the bus, the students present their own family trees, bridging that familiar concept to "the family tree of the whole human race." Then the antics begin, with the characters taking on the shapes of life forms of increasing complexity across the timeline, from single- and multi-celled organisms through fish, amphibians, reptiles, and primates. Extra time is spent on early and modern human species, including the development of culture and language. A helpful graphic appears every few pages to mark progress through geologic time. As always, the cheerful illustrations pack in entire subtexts: humorous speech-bubble dialogue among the classmates and numerous facts contained in reports and other visual asides. Additional explanations of the evidence for evolution and how natural selection works are appended. Danielle J. Ford March/April 2021 p.109(c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
