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Life Story
Earth takes center stage in this updated version of Virginia Lee Burton’s 1962 classic Life Story . Told through five acts, Burton’s art and text tell the history of earth from beginning to present day. Readers will gain an in-depth understanding of the planet’s history and their leading roles in it today. The book has been updated with cutting-edge science, including up-to-the-minute information on fossil records and the geologic principles.
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
December 28, 2007
I think this is THE best book about evolution and time for little kids. If only I could read it without crying- as Burton brings the focus in and moves inexorably nearer in time to the reader, the intensity ramps up to a point where the brevity and beauty of life is so apparent that it's painful. An exquisite and breathtaking book.
January 21, 2018
A brilliantly conceived book, delivered in Burton's beautiful style. There are so many illustrations that are just perfect - worthy of framing. The use of color is exceptional. Many author-illustrators could have done this kind of book, but I'm glad it was Burton who actually took on the task. This was her final book, and it took her eight years to complete.
I like that it offers three age suggestions: To Look At: 4-6; To Read Aloud: 6-10; To Read to Yourself: 10 & up. There are a lot of tiny details (and text) that merit spending additional time with the book outside of a straight reading. Unlike much of the work of Peter Sís, however, the tiny text is still legible, and the main story is not told in those handwritten letters. In some ways this is a melding of her work on The Song of Robin Hood with its little tiny figures and The Little House with its changing time-lapse, but with much more added that isn't present anywhere in her other books.
I see some reviews mention that the book was updated in the 1990s (and also in 2009?). I'm curious to learn more about the exact changes. Apparently they changed brontosaurus to apatosaurus (a bit too hastily, it seems) and demoted Pluto, and I see a couple other things mentioned in this New Yorker piece, such as the dumb "Prehistoric Humans" instead of "Prehistoric Man". I'm glad to have an original version (often color reproduction and paper quality suffer in new versions), but would like to know what was altered.
I like that it offers three age suggestions: To Look At: 4-6; To Read Aloud: 6-10; To Read to Yourself: 10 & up. There are a lot of tiny details (and text) that merit spending additional time with the book outside of a straight reading. Unlike much of the work of Peter Sís, however, the tiny text is still legible, and the main story is not told in those handwritten letters. In some ways this is a melding of her work on The Song of Robin Hood with its little tiny figures and The Little House with its changing time-lapse, but with much more added that isn't present anywhere in her other books.
I see some reviews mention that the book was updated in the 1990s (and also in 2009?). I'm curious to learn more about the exact changes. Apparently they changed brontosaurus to apatosaurus (a bit too hastily, it seems) and demoted Pluto, and I see a couple other things mentioned in this New Yorker piece, such as the dumb "Prehistoric Humans" instead of "Prehistoric Man". I'm glad to have an original version (often color reproduction and paper quality suffer in new versions), but would like to know what was altered.
March 11, 2016
When I was in 3rd grade I took this book out of my elementary school library on a continual basis. I must have had it all year. At the end of the school year the librarian gave me the book, and I still have it.
Thirty something years later I bought a new hardcover edition of the book for my son. Who at just two years old is still too young to know exactly what is going on. But from looking at the early illustrations he now can say "Dinosaur" , and he can pick out his dad's favorite illustration of early spring at the farm later in the book.
I'll probably have that 3rd grade version of this book for the rest of my life.
Thirty something years later I bought a new hardcover edition of the book for my son. Who at just two years old is still too young to know exactly what is going on. But from looking at the early illustrations he now can say "Dinosaur" , and he can pick out his dad's favorite illustration of early spring at the farm later in the book.
I'll probably have that 3rd grade version of this book for the rest of my life.
February 22, 2018
Life Story is Virginia Lee Burton's seventh and final book, published in 1962. In a prologue and five acts, Burton traces the story of life on earth, beginning with the birth of the sun and the formation of our planet, and highlighting major periods of the paleozoic, mesozoic, cenozoic, and recent eras, before concluding with a section on the seasons of the year and times of the day. Illustrated with full-color paintings and black-and-white diagrams, this book helps young children place themselves in time, space, and history, and provides them with an overview of natural history and evolution that can serve as a scaffold on which later deeper study can build.
This book is truly a masterpiece. I don't think I have ever read a more engaging, more attractive, or more emotionally resonant nonfiction book for children, or for any other audience. Burton includes details that are interesting to children - what creatures ate, the fact that cephalapods had feet on their heads, volcanic activity, the discovery of fire by early human beings - but she also drives home the fleeting nature of our own lives and the brevity of our era as compared with all those eons that have gone before.
Though there is no explicit mention of religion in this book, I found it very easy to see God's hand in everything Burton describes. For me, as a Catholic, I accept evolution as the means by which God accomplished his creation, and it was easy to present that worldview to my four-year-old as I shared the book with her. The details in the illustrations also make it possible for kids who don't read yet to enjoy the book and to gain a basic understanding of the changes to our planet and its inhabitants over time.
Apparently, this book was updated in 2009 to correct some outdated information (about Pluto, and brontosauruses, and other similar details), but I own the original edition and plan to stick with it. With the Internet at our fingertips, and other books in our collection, we'll be able to fill in any newly-discovered information that has been left out without having to try and figure out which pieces of Burton's text have been changed. It also saves me from the annoying political correctness of seeing "prehistoric man" changed to "prehistoric humans," which seems like such a petty little edit to make to such a wonderful book. Even my four-year-old understands that "man" (or "men" as she hears it in the Nicene creed at Mass) is a generic term intended to include all people and not an oppressive word designed to keep her and other girls out.
This is a book to own, to cherish, and to read many times over. I cannot say enough about how much I enjoyed it or how wonderfully it makes a big concept - the very nature of life on Earth - into something a child can easily wrap his mind around.
This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.
This book is truly a masterpiece. I don't think I have ever read a more engaging, more attractive, or more emotionally resonant nonfiction book for children, or for any other audience. Burton includes details that are interesting to children - what creatures ate, the fact that cephalapods had feet on their heads, volcanic activity, the discovery of fire by early human beings - but she also drives home the fleeting nature of our own lives and the brevity of our era as compared with all those eons that have gone before.
Though there is no explicit mention of religion in this book, I found it very easy to see God's hand in everything Burton describes. For me, as a Catholic, I accept evolution as the means by which God accomplished his creation, and it was easy to present that worldview to my four-year-old as I shared the book with her. The details in the illustrations also make it possible for kids who don't read yet to enjoy the book and to gain a basic understanding of the changes to our planet and its inhabitants over time.
Apparently, this book was updated in 2009 to correct some outdated information (about Pluto, and brontosauruses, and other similar details), but I own the original edition and plan to stick with it. With the Internet at our fingertips, and other books in our collection, we'll be able to fill in any newly-discovered information that has been left out without having to try and figure out which pieces of Burton's text have been changed. It also saves me from the annoying political correctness of seeing "prehistoric man" changed to "prehistoric humans," which seems like such a petty little edit to make to such a wonderful book. Even my four-year-old understands that "man" (or "men" as she hears it in the Nicene creed at Mass) is a generic term intended to include all people and not an oppressive word designed to keep her and other girls out.
This is a book to own, to cherish, and to read many times over. I cannot say enough about how much I enjoyed it or how wonderfully it makes a big concept - the very nature of life on Earth - into something a child can easily wrap his mind around.
This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.
April 8, 2013
A beautiful book that traces history from the birth of our sun to the present moment, illustrating the creation of the earth and it's minerals, through the evolution of life and human civilization. Burton frames her story as one of many—a planet orbiting a star out of billions of stars in trillions of galaxies, and that the species and places she highlights are also specific amongst a plethora of other species and places. There are of course some important omissions: she makes no mention of apes or early hominids and humans just appear as cave-dwellers 25,000 years ago. Likewise, settlers simply clear away American forests without notion of people who were already there. Granted she wrote this for children in 1962, and dismissing biblical creationism can be radical enough without delving into genocide at a time when that was nary talked about. If you come across this book, read it, share it with young people, frame it within the context in which it was written an talk about what we've learned in the 50 years since.
February 7, 2009
This is an illustrated history of everything starting from the sun until now.
I found it very interesting, although I am not sure how outdated it is. I read it out loud to my six year old, and he didn't get anything out of it. He is more of a Magic School Bus type kid. This book is too textbooky for him.
I found it very interesting, although I am not sure how outdated it is. I read it out loud to my six year old, and he didn't get anything out of it. He is more of a Magic School Bus type kid. This book is too textbooky for him.
October 10, 2022
It we going very well until human history. Then she writes very Euro-centrally. Talking about the New World and how life was hard for the settlers with no mention of indigenous populations. Then she gets extremely personal with things happening in her house and lifetime. The first half of the book is great to explain and give a visual of the very early development of the earth.
May 6, 2022
Something in my memory brought this title back to me, and I had to read it again for the first time in about 50 years. The search was a bit challenging, but I'm so glad I found it once more.
Originally published in 1962, it has lost some of its accuracy, and the colonial era looks quite happy for all involved, but what always enthralled me as a kid was the progression of the story and the layout. A page of text with some simple paintings on the left, and then a stage scene with proscenium arch framing a moment in time, always painted in simple strokes and fairly bright colors. The book starts with the formation of the galaxy and progresses through all the ages of the dinosaurs to modern times, with the final scene happening this very moment: a great way to make a child wonder about their place in the universe.
Originally published in 1962, it has lost some of its accuracy, and the colonial era looks quite happy for all involved, but what always enthralled me as a kid was the progression of the story and the layout. A page of text with some simple paintings on the left, and then a stage scene with proscenium arch framing a moment in time, always painted in simple strokes and fairly bright colors. The book starts with the formation of the galaxy and progresses through all the ages of the dinosaurs to modern times, with the final scene happening this very moment: a great way to make a child wonder about their place in the universe.
January 19, 2021
Absolutely beautiful book with amazing illustrations! I was so distracted by some of the illustrations that I had to go back and reread the pages. Definitely recommended for all of your little ones!
August 11, 2016
Life Story is beautiful! The whole world is literally a stage as the book traces the history of life on Earth- from the rocks, plants, animals to humans. I just loved how it focused first in the incredible vastness of space and into her own life and eventually to the reader with these words:
And now it is your Life Story
and it is you who plays the leading role.
The stage is set, the time is now, and the place wherever you are.
Each passing second is a new link in the endless chain of Time.
The drama of Life is a continuous story- ever new,
ever changing, and ever wondrous to behold.
And now it is your Life Story
and it is you who plays the leading role.
The stage is set, the time is now, and the place wherever you are.
Each passing second is a new link in the endless chain of Time.
The drama of Life is a continuous story- ever new,
ever changing, and ever wondrous to behold.
November 3, 2015
Where has this book been all my life? I'm a fan of some of Burton's more well-known picture books (Mike Mulligan, The Little House), but stumbling on this at the gift shop of the New York Botanical Garden was like opening a door in my mind to a secret room I had never even imagined. The book is a psychedelic/outsider-art procession through the natural history of the earth, gaining in detail and clarity as it cascades from the creation of the universe through a single spring day on a farm in Massachusetts. Absolutely stunning - I'll be returning to this one regularly for the rest of my life.
January 30, 2017
This book tells the story of life, from the beginning of our planet to now. It was originally written in the 1960's and updated in the 1990's. So, the scientific information isn't *completely* up to date, but it's still a beautiful and valuable book. The illustrations are intriguing and unique; every page turn is a delight. The poetry beautifully conveys the information in a way that makes one think of Carl Sagan's writing. A fantastic book to share with your students or children.
March 25, 2017
I rated this low because it totally ignores the story of creation in the bible. Also, I found it hilarious when referring to the origin of the moon that it states that no one was here at the time so we don't know and then goes on to describe the origins of the earth as though it is fact, although no one was there as well....besides God. I read it to myself and decided that one day when my kids are much older, I will share this information with them but not now, and my oldest is 9.
December 14, 2019
The words, honestly, are boring as boring can be. But I cannot think of a child that would not love looking at the pictures and ask a million questions. The pictures are beautiful, that cozy, contained style Burton has. I'm so glad to have found this. It does take an abrupt turn to "today" (or her today) and goes through the seasons before encouraging you to continue your own life story.
September 17, 2011
The theory of evolution has never been so wonderfully presented as in this beautiful book by Virginia Lee Burton. It is a joy to read and the illustrations can be explored and appreciated for a lifetime!
April 30, 2015
A favorite book in childhood. I haven't read it in years.
December 21, 2016
This book is beautifully illustrated. I loved looking at the pictures.
January 27, 2022
I went into this with zero expectations...it's a book on the history of the world from 1962, what expectations could I have? But I really like this book and my kids really like this book.
The structure is great...it is really hard to convey this kind of passage to time to the very young but taking them through the "acts" that are the evolution of the world and then at the end framing time in a way they will understand...it was just really well done.
My scientific knowledge isn't complete enough to know what's been added but it seems to have been updated seamlessly and accurately and given the drawings I think was probably a very good scientific text for kids in its time. I was pleasantly surprised. I can see anyone interested in biology or life sciences, of any age, really getting into it. That's what happened at my house.
The structure is great...it is really hard to convey this kind of passage to time to the very young but taking them through the "acts" that are the evolution of the world and then at the end framing time in a way they will understand...it was just really well done.
My scientific knowledge isn't complete enough to know what's been added but it seems to have been updated seamlessly and accurately and given the drawings I think was probably a very good scientific text for kids in its time. I was pleasantly surprised. I can see anyone interested in biology or life sciences, of any age, really getting into it. That's what happened at my house.
January 27, 2023
When it comes to stories about science (including paleontology), we continue, as a species, to learn. And, even though this was updated in 1990 from the 1962 version, there are new discoveries and new attitudes that are not sufficiently covered in this book. When reading it to young people, I think it is important to be aware of its euro-centrism, its complete disregard for people who had lived in the Americas before European explorers. It's also worth noting that dinosaurs are not classified as reptiles any more, and that we know more about when different species evolved and went extinct now, than we did then. Of course, even if it's updated again, there will be new discoveries made in the future, and long may that continue!
April 22, 2018
There are a lot of wasted words here framing everything as a "stage" and "acts" which for my kids are more foreign than the concepts from natural history. They clutter up both the words and the art. The illustrations vary in quality. Lots of species are portrayed as stick figures and don't spark the imagination.
The idea of asymptotically approaching the present moment is a good one, but not well executed, and the awkwardness of zeroing in on a particular house that isn't ours and doesn't share any context with ours means that we usually bail out halfway through.
The idea of asymptotically approaching the present moment is a good one, but not well executed, and the awkwardness of zeroing in on a particular house that isn't ours and doesn't share any context with ours means that we usually bail out halfway through.
June 18, 2020
I owned a paperback copy of this growing up and spent countless hours reading and noticing every little detail on every page. it's so comprehensive but told in such an engaging way, and my young mind just soaked it all up! I have so many fond memories of this book and didn't know until just recently that she's the same author of mike mulligan and his steam shovel, another book easily in my top 10 kids books!
January 18, 2017
I am a big fan of Virginia Lee Burton, and the cover of this book is so appealing, and it got great reviews. BUT. I couldn't make it through the book. I tried half a dozen times. It's thick. I'm sure it was amazing in the 1960's to have such a nicely illustrated non-fiction picture book. But it did not pull me in to a subject I don't love. Ah well.
August 3, 2018
I liked this book for the art of Burton but also because it describes the development of earth and it’s life without fussing over religion or in proven theories. It also comes down to one person at one time and how small we are in the great universe and I the huge span of time. Age appropriate for mid grade school and up
January 6, 2022
I actually read this to my children as part of the Build Your Library unit study of Prehistory. But it is, I believe, one of the most beautiful books ever. I highly recommend pulling it OUT of the scheduled order and reading it straight through. It makes a much greater impact, and the layout makes better sense then.
January 16, 2022
The last bit was such a slow down, from when each Act spanned millions of years, to a wind down to a Scene covering a single day. It was a lovely story of a journey through time, definitely suited for older readers though, I think that elementary school children would struggle with some of the finer nuances.
April 8, 2024
I read this book to my kids, it was a book and author that I loved in my childhood. It took a long time to find time to read it the way it deserves to be read. Burton made so many drawings and takes everything from the Universe down to her home at dawn. I love how she is able to contextualize such an enormous concept. Special book.
July 7, 2021
This book was a little tough to chew but I think it did a great job outlining the theories of the origins of the earth and the different evolutionary eras and occurrences that are generally accepted by Earth scientists.
July 24, 2018
Beautiful.
September 17, 2018
The most important children's book ever written.
July 24, 2019
Virginia Lee Burton, yes THAT Virginia Lee Burton, wrote a kids picture book about the evolution of man! In 1962! This is wonderfully surprising to me!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews