One hundred and fifty-one years ago, in November of 1859, an Englishman named Charles Darwin published a book that detailed his theories about evolution, natural selection, and the survival of the fittest. It was a groundbreaking work that revolutionized our understanding of life on the planet, but it did not fit tidily into the mainstream dogma of the world’s religions.
I assume you know this already. On the Origin of Species is one of the most influential and controversial books of all time. If you haven’t read it in its entirety, you might want to check out one of WRL’s copies; this one is 537 pages, and this one is 544 pages. Or, if you feel daunted by the thought of 500+ pages of Victorian science writing, you could warm up with the graphic novel adaptation.
“Adaptation” is precisely the right word here. This is not an abridgment. Author Michael Keller includes plentiful excerpts from Darwin’s writing, but the larger structure of the book incorporates several elements: in addition to examining the science behind each chapter of Darwin’s book, the graphic novel explores Darwin’s life, the historical impact of his theories, and the reverberations that continue to shape biology and genetics in the present day.
Diligent middle schoolers and very sharp elementary schoolers could handle this graphic novel, but mostly I would recommend it for older teens and adults. Michael Keller’s lucid explanations make for an excellent introduction to, or review of, Darwin’s theories, while Nicolle Rager Fuller’s detailed illustrations help the reader to visualize the science.
Check the WRL catalog for Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species: A Graphic Adaptation
[…] Via Blogging for a Good Book, the book is a graphic novel of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. This sounds pretty cool. […]