Charles Darwin And Evolution

by Ian Graham

This narrative non-fiction series tells the stories of great moments in science as if through the eyes of the scientists and inventors themselves. The stories are told like an adventure, with all the dramas, missteps and struggles along the way, ultimately leading to the ‘Eureka’ moment of triumph. The books use all the tropes of fiction – dialogue, action, suspense – to tell true-life tales of human discovery and achievement. Readers will discover what happened during these milestones of science – but crucially, they will also be able to imagine what it might have felt like to be at the cutting edge of progress. The narratives are interspersed with short comic strips dramatising significant episodes and boxes to explain scientific concepts, as well as historical information to set the story in a wider context. The end matter contains a timeline, a glossary and an index. In Charles Darwin and Evolution we follow the famed scientist as he travels to the Galapagos islands on board the Beagle, develops his ground-breaking theory of evolution, and defends his ideas as they face hostility from the Victorian society around him.

144 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 30, 2020

About the author

After working as an in-house journalist and editor in consumer electronics magazines, Ian Graham became a freelance writer. He has written more than 230 illustrated non-fiction books for children and teens, and contributed chapters to books including Dorling Kindersley’s Know it All and Big Ideas that Changed the World. He has a degree in applied physics and a postgraduate diploma in journalism.

Reviews

[Lynda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gives great insights into a famous life - where you realize you presumed or 'knew' certain superficial things about the person, but in actual fact, there was a whole lot more to their life and story. In this case, it seems the young Charles Darwin, after sailing on The Beagle and making all sorts of discoveries, actually took quite some time to analyse and ponder over what to make of things. When he realized he was looking at a theory of evolution, he was terrified of revealing it to family, friends and society at large, because of the terrible Christian backlash he expected. So, he sat on his findings for years. At the same time, he worked like a Trojan on all sorts of research and topics of interest, including earthworms!. He suffered immensely from bouts of illness and pain, which he thought might be due to stress, overwork and fear (of Christian backlash), but which may have started on his original journey, when he quite possibly contracted a terrible, enduring tropical disease.
Ian Graham writes in the first person narrative style, so we are immediately immersed in Darwin's thoughts and his world. There are illustrations and comic strips, deftly handled by Anneliese Stoney, and fact boxes, useful summaries and timelines that help the young reader keep their bearings as they navigate the text.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable book to read.