Over the summer, I read Creation: The True Story of Charles Darwin by Randal Keynes (after hearing Keynes talk about his book on NPR). I thought the book Creation was an interesting look at how Darwin came to his belifs and how he "evolved" in thought over time. A main theme of Creation was how the death of Annie influenced Darwin and his thoughts on religion, evolution and humanity. And while I found the book interesting I wanted more on the Darwin's personal story. The book Charles and Emma provided a link between Darwin in theory and Darwin the man. I found this book incredibily fascinating and the details of the age, the family, and Darwin's work all merged together in an engaging manner. I think that this book can serve many purposes and topical interests - religion, family, science, and Victorian housholds and norms. Yet, while I liked the scienctific aspects of the story and appreciate how it would be diffuclt to write a book on Darwin without discussing theory and science - the details, at times, seemed a bit intense for a YA book. I think that many students wouldn't be able to fully connect with the more nuanced parts of Darwin's work. However, showing in detail the two sides of Darwin (the personal and the professional) was really enjoyable and showed the complexities of people. All told - I really enjoyed reading this and felt that my understanding of not only Darwin and his theories, but the entire scope of British soceity in the 1800s was expanded by this very well-thoughtout, well-research and well-written account of the lives of Charles and Emma Darwin.