Evolutionary Tales

by Matt Cubberly

Evolutionary Tales is a children's book that teaches evolution through 10 poems focusing on the wildest-evolved creatures of our world! Our world is full of absolutely amazing creatures that have evolved and adapted to become truly incredible! And because our world is so diverse, Evolutionary Tales isn't just one story! Instead, the book is a compilation of TEN wildly-different stories - each focusing on one fantastic creature! Each story is told in the form of a long poem, and each takes you into a specific niche. Kids love the close-up look into the tiny worlds all around them as they learn how the animals evolved to fill those roles. Some are quite funny - like a fish walking on land! And some are a bit scary - like the toothy angler fish down in the dark depths of the ocean! But whether you're put into the sky, into the water, or out onto the land, you and your child will no doubt have an amazing adventure while reading AND learning!

Genres: Picture Books, Poetry

24 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2015

About the author

Matt Cubberly is a produced screenwriter and author based out of Chicago, Illinois, and a graduate of the University of Colorado, at Boulder. As the founder and sole owner of The WilderWay LLC, he focuses on producing niche projects that parallel the film industry by telling beautiful stories through a variety of media. Inspired by the works of Andrew Stanton and Danny Boyle, Matt strives for simple, yet resoundingly character-driven tales with mass appeal.

Reviews

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to give author Matt Cubberly props for trying to make the Theory of Evolution accessible to the younger set. Unfortunately, poems might not be the best vehicle, nor is Cubberly’s language accessible for a picture book touted as serving kids from 4 to 14. Who is the audience for this book? The younger kids don’t know the definition of gangly, depths, nocturnal, impressive, habitat, flaunt, plummet, scurrying, chamber or intricate; tweens and teens will find the poetry premise twee. Perhaps it’s for advanced 9- and 10-year-olds? I loved it for myself, but I would never use it in class unless I was explaining the animals myself and just using the pictures.

Which is such a pity as Cubberly’s got the best intentions, and the illustrations by May Villani blew me away.

[Barbara Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an interesting book that features ten creatures that have adapted and evolved to survive in our modern-day environment.

Some of them are probably familiar like the hummingbird and woodpecker. Others like the tarsier, sugar beetle, and bombardier beetle probably won't be recognized by most readers. The book is written in ten rather long poems. Readers gain a lot of information and are exposed to poetry at the same time.

A few of these creatures may be scary for younger children. That feature plus the length of text on each page makes me recommend the book to older readers like the eight to twelve-year-old range. It might also be a good choice as a starting point for research on one of these creatures.

[Colleen Villasenor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is written all in verse. After a brief explanation of what evolution is, the author goes on to showcase a number of interesting examples of evolutionary developments in creatures such as the mudskipper and the pileated woodpecker. This is not a book that goes into great depth about evolution as much as it is a cute book about very specific examples of adaptation by evolutionary means

[Ralph Srouji · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most interesting little poems

My daughter and I just enjoyed these fantastic poems about evolution. I have a feeling I’ll be reading her this book again and again.

[Derrick Schneider · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great artwork and information, but the poems are clunky and the book is much less about evolution than it is about curious "end" results in the world today.