Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story – An Illustrated Book About Our Relatives from Land and Sea for Children

by Lisa Westberg Peters, Lauren Stringer (Illustrator)

All of us are part of an old, old family. The roots of our family tree reach back millions of years to the beginning of life on earth. Open this family album and embark on an amazing journey. You'll meet some of our oldest relatives--from both the land and the sea--and discover what we inherited from each of them along the many steps of our wondrous past.
Complete with an illustrated timeline and glossary, here is the story of human evolution as it's never been told before.

Genres: Science, Picture Books, Childrens, Evolution, History, Nonfiction, Biology

48 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Lisa Westberg Peters is a children's author and poet from St. Paul, Minnesota. Her books often have a scientific focus.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I do think that Lisa Westberg Peters' Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story is generally an adequate enough basic introduction to the concept (to the theory) of evolution for children, I both personally and academically have definitely found that the author's striving to keep her text simple and not too informationally involved has actually (at least to and for educated adult me) made Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story potentially confusing and perhaps even more than a trifle misleading at times (especially with regard to scientific facts and truths about the geologic and biologic history of our planet, of the Earth). For while I am most definitely a strong believer in evolution (and am totally against any form of active biblical creationism, albeit I do believe in God and that deistic or perhaps even theistic evolution might in fact be what my belief is and entails) I do have rather massive issues and misgivings with the fact that Lisa Westberg Peters' seems to show life and how we have developed and changed as a species over time as some kind of straight and sequential timeline (as almost all of the science based books on evolution I have thus far read do generally NOT as a rule consider it as something that is inherently linear and therefore always moving forward in a straight, non-branching manner, and for the author to present evolution as such, while I guess it could perhaps make said concept easier for the intended audience, for the so-called picture book crowd to fathom, this is also in my opinion very much inaccurate and as such obviously not all that scientifically sound).

Combined with the author's rather (personally) annoyingly frustrating tendencies to leave out, to not even consider mentioning a number of important and indeed also quite essential facts and details of our planet's history, such as for example only showing one of the many supercontinents, which does indeed kind of makes it appear as though Pangaea is the only supercontinent to ever have existed on Earth (and which is in fact and indeed totally, utterly false) and that Lisa Westberg Peters also only presents ONE of the mass extinction events to have occurred throughout the Earth's history and then not even the most serious, the most inherently destructive to life itself (namely that she describes the K-T boundary event that wiped out the dinosaurs, which might well be the most famous and certainly did herald the advancement and domination of mammals, including primates, including us, but basically is pretty much a rather mild to medium mass extinction event when compared to say the Permian-Triassic extinction which almost destroyed life itself) I really cannot justify ranking Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story with more than two stars (although I do very much love Lauren Stringer's brightly descriptive full page accompanying illustrations and even Lisa Westberg Peters' text is a decent enough starting point, but one that in my opinion would definitely and yes absolutely require discussion and supplemental information to fill in the author's problematic informational gaps).

[Hillary Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the illustrations and the story telling is simple enough for my little ones. If you are interested in raising children who see beauty in the science behind evolution, I recommend this book.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I live in the South and (sadly) I can't imagine a teacher having this book in the classroom.

But, I have two very curious boys, one of whom is obsessed with dinosaurs...and reading dinosaur books leads to lots of questions about evolution. I found it difficult to explain evolution in a way they could understand so I looked for a book that was age-appropriate.

This book does a pretty good job introducing the concept of evolution to young children. Life on earth is characterized as a big family and organisms and creatures from the past are generations in this family. Climate changes and events on earth have caused the family to grow and change over time.

It is still a difficult concept to explain and comprehend. But, the text and illustrations capture the beauty of the process. I think this is often lacking in explanations of evolution. Our existence is the result of the breathtaking forces of nature and this book succeeds in expressing the wonder of it all.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read it, more than once with more than 1 grandchild, great book.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yep, evolution. All laid out. Yep. Yep.

How many characters do I have to type for this to count as a full review?

[Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Beautiful illustrations and such a lovely warm use of language and image to describe a process that's normally discussed in cold, scientific terms. It's the telling of the origin of life on Earth almost as a story. It reads as a beautiful creation myth, and I suppose in a way it is one. It's just the likeliest of all the creation myths to be true, and the only one for which we have found supporting evidence. I haven't read this to my kids yet, but I'm really looking forward to it.

Reading the other reviews, I'm saddened by how many teachers are here knocking the book because of its subject matter. That hardly seems fair. Do you go to review the bible and say... "Mmm not bad, nice stories, but it's too religious!"? Worse still is the revelation that they are all too fearful of the controversy that may result from having it available for kids to read to have it in their classrooms.

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01/2017 -- I've read it to my kids and had the same feeling. Definitely glad I hung onto this one.

[Jenne · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not just the creationists who have a hard time with this book. The scientists and evolutionary biologists do too. It is innacurate to say that life evolved in the linear manner that this book suggests and it conflates the outer branches with the past branching closer to the trunk that actually led to adaptions and inherited traits over time. The illustrations are beautiful but we find the need to reword the text to say "life" instead of "we." Better yet is to find a book that portrays the concepts mote accurately. Older Than The Stars and You Are Stardust are better books to introduce the concept of a developing earth. We are still on the look out for a book like Our Inner Fish written for children.

[Sheena Maxwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kale is 5. He had alot of questions about evolution. He read this book by himself (out loud to me) and loved it and got it!

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am on the hunt for good books about evolution and the Earth's beginnings for kids.... this was close, but not quite it. Our evolution was a complicated process, not the smooth line the book implies. Also, the use of the word "we" drove me nuts. *We* were sitting on the couch reading this book.... *we* were never single celled bacteria swimming in the ocean. Grrr. "Life", "ancestors"... and I'm sure if I thought about it I could come up with some other words that could have been used. When will authors realize that too much simplification can lead to huge misunderstandings?

[Adele · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wonder if I would have liked this more if I were in a different mood, or if I had read it when I first put it on my want-to-read list back in 2018 when I was really getting into spiritual naturalism, particularly in books for children. As it is, I thought the pictures were fine, but nothing special. I questioned the science at a couple points, but I think that was actually gaps in my knowledge combined with being a little cranky, and the science is probably fine. Linking each stage of evolution to things we have now didn't add much for me, but it's... fine. The whole book is just fine and that's it.

[Wendy, Lady Evelyn Quince · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really adored this book for my daughter when she was younger; it gave her a simplistic understanding of evolution and natural selection. The pictures are wonderful, from the DNA structures to the multiple single-celled organisms to the reptiles and dinosaurs and primates that followed.

The hows of macro-evolution are addressed in a fairly basic manner, straight-forward enough for young children, but does not address the "whys," so this is a decent book for people of all religious or non-religious perspectives.

On a personal note, I must mention that the first person plural narration of the book did confuse her a bit a the time (she was 4-7 when we read this one). The whole "we were first cells, then we changed to fish then we changed to reptiles then we changed to people" angle reinforced her (and her father's beliefs on reincarnation/we are all one giant soul mysticism) which I wasn't too crazy about. At the time I was an apathetic "believer" of a universal Godhead, which is a flaky way of saying I was spiritual, but not religious. Now my spiritual beliefs have "evolved" to a more gnostic/pagan/polytheistic/paleo-Catholic/Orthodox (and if that doesn't confuse you, it should), but that hasn't squelched my understanding and beliefs of evolution and the scientific processes of life.

As a parent it's up to me to reveal the bond of the spiritual and the rational, and ten years later, she's at the top of her class in science (biology) and possibly looking into a field of medical research particularly in the genetics.

When science education is made fun, it opens up a new dimension to children, no matter where they come from.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 7-year old daughter has a lot of questions about how life began and evolution, so I read this to her. It is a very pretty book, and I think the intent is to be "scientifically poetic" or "poetically scientific". It mostly succeeds. But the confusing way that "we" was used throughout the book when referring to the beginnings of life was disappointing. It raised more questions because it sounded to my daughter like that was specifically how HER life had begun, so I had to explain that. Which is fine, except that this book is supposed to answer questions about evolution and the beginnings of life on earth. It is possible to make this a beautiful story with gorgeous art while still being clear and factual.

[Mandie McGlynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quentin (my 5 year old) ADORED this book, a brief explanation/overview of the evolutionary process. It's beautifully illustrated.

[Rachelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful graphics and simplifies this important biological concept for little ones.

[The Silvan Reverie | Sarah Street · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our Family Tree is an evolution book aimed at the 3-5 year old age range. I think in some regards this is successful and taking an extremely complex scientific topic and breaking it down into a simple and engaging narrative paired with interesting illustrations to get the message across. I do feel like the actual text of this book is a little long for this age group. A better example might be Grandmother Fish.

That said, both of these books unfortunately present evolution as a linear format that happens in this neat sequential order, ending with humans. I understand why authors are doing that at this preschool age range, but I wish there were a better way. Grandmother Fish at least presents Our Family Tree at the end of the book that illustrates all live is related, verses the linear timeline presented at the end of this book Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story.

Again, this is not an easy concept to deliver to 3-5 year olds, so I applaud the effort. I think science-minded kids will appreciate and enjoy this book.

[Nikki · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is simplified enough that younger children will be able to see the evolution but there are nice details that engage older children. I also love that some pages have a color illustration on one side and an outline drawing on the other that highlights one point from the text. For example, a picture of a monkey in a tree and then a drawing of a monkey with the hand bones detailed in because they were similar to our hands today.

Also, at the end of the book the is more information about some of the main points to help lead discussion and research if desired.

[Kylie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m both a believer in God and a believer in science. This is not a creationist book. It explains the origins and evolution of life through the periods of the earth really beautifully. It’s one I’m going to add to my library for when my kids ask me, “Mom, where do humans come from?” Or “How were humans made?”

[Steph · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, that’s one perspective. Not a book I would purchase for my school or family, but I respect that some believe this to be true and for those people the illustrations are beautiful.

[Viviane Elbee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The kids enjoyed this book - it has beautiful illustrations and a kid-appropriate introduction to the concept of evolution.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The end materials were good, but the main text seemed a bit confusing to me. Not sure that it makes evolution easier for kids to understand than a more straightforward explanation.

[matteo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations are fantastic. The text is clunky and sometimes confusing.

[Brianna Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My girls and I love this one.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book - the story was told in a very kid-friendly tone & the pictures were beautiful! It's one of the few library books I want to buy!

[Nolan Brendel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it because it had animals in it and it was educational.

[Shelley Diamond · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good basic introduction to the concept of evolution....

[Taylor7778]

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[Elizabeth Mellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful illustrations with information that is informative but easy enough for a child to understand.

[Connie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book! It was a joy to read and I truly think both teachers and students alike would love to read this book. I loved how the topic was informational and education while still being appropriate for younger children. The book explains evolution but in a way that younger children can understand. I thought it was cute and clever that a young child was “telling” the story of evolution while drawing the different animals in the sand at the beach.

The illustrations were exceptional! They were beautifully done and very capturing. It was definitely not a boring book. It demands attention with the bold and colorful pictures. The language is very understandable. I think it would be a great resource to use in prescience class! It introduces children to the theory of evolution without too much confusion or technical terms.

My favorite part was when the child narrating the story would relate certain characteristics to “us.” The narrator would show the commonalities of the species evolving to the current state of humanity. In addition, I loved how the child would draw the animal in the sand and the next page would have the sand drawing colored in and more elaborate.

I do think the topic can be a bit controversial but the majority of schools will teach the evolution theory especially in public schools. So I do think it's appropriate for younger children. There should be some explanation that goes along with the book so children understand and don't misinterpret the theory.

At the back of the book there is more information and even a timeline. It’s a really informative book that can expand learning. I would definitely recommend this book!

[Kate Winkler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having a book about evolution in a classroom can be controversial. Many families have different religious beliefs and some do not believe in evolution. Many books can cause controversy, and this one might fall under that category. I think it is a hard subject to teach young children and do not understand why this book is in a book form for the young readers. The concept of generations and time changing slowly can also be a hard topic for young children to grasp.
This book describes the evolution of how we began. It describes our ancestors as being cells, plants, and animals. Also, that as climates and time changed the earth “our family” changed as well.
Some of the concepts and terms in the book would be difficult for the child to understand. For instance, in the beginning the book states, “When we began, we didn’t look like people. We didn’t have two eyes to blink or ten toes to wiggle. We were just tiny round cells in the deep, dark sea.” It might be difficult for a young student to grasp the term cells. Also, as a young child, they are still learning about themselves and what makes up their bodies and the human figure, etc. To introduce a book that makes them have to think about not having eyes or ten twos can be difficult.
I was not too fond of the topic of this book. In my opinion, it is a little too controversial and hard of a topic to teach students and expect them to follow along and fully comprehend. However, the art work was amazing! The bold colors were eye-catching and detailed. All in all, I liked the pictures, but did not like the topic/subject of the book.

[Lyndi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had some mixed feelings about this book. I absolutely loved the illustrations, but I wish the topic would not have been about evolution. Those illustrations need to be on a book about something other than that. Not that I am against evolution, but I just know a lot of people have a lot of strong feelings about evolution and religion and I am just not sure it is wise to put that type of subject into a children's book form for use in the classroom. I think it would definitely be a great book for families to have at home if they believe in evolution, because it paints a great picture for children about the evolution process but I would never use it in the classroom. The quote written on the back cover of the book stated by Ernst Mayr, a zoologist at Harvard University went as follows, "evolution is what has created the living world and what keeps it going. If we do not understand evolution, we will never undertand our world. How lucky our children are to have this beautiful and moving guidefrom which to learn." I thought this was a pretty strong statement to have on the back of a children's book as well. Overall, I think this is a decent book, but should only be used in appropriate places.