What Darwin Saw: The Journey That Changed the World

Schanzer, Rosalyn

ISBN 10: 1426303971 ISBN 13: 9781426303975

Publisher: National Geographic Children's Books, 2009

Synopsis

In 1831 a 22-year-old naturalist named Charles Darwin stepped aboard the HMS Beagle as a traveling companion of an equally youthful sea captain called Robert FitzRoy. The Beagle’s round-the-world surveying journey lasted five long years on the high seas. The young Darwin noticed everything, and proved himself an avid and detailed chronicler of daily events on the Beagle and onshore. What Darwin Saw takes young readers back to the pages of his journals as they travel alongside Darwin and read his lively and awestruck words about the wonders of the world.

We follow Darwin’s voyage, looking over his shoulder as he explores new lands, asks questions about the natural world, and draws groundbreaking conclusions. We walk in his footsteps, collecting animals and fossils, experiencing earthquakes and volcanoes, and meeting people of many cultures and languages. We examine his opinions on life in all its forms. We consider the thoughts of this remarkable scientist, who poured his observations and research into his expansive theories about life on Earth. In this exciting and educational account, Charles Darwin comes alive as an inspirational model for kids who think and question the world around them.

About this title

About the Author:

Rosalyn Schanzer is the award-winning author and illustrator of 15 books for young readers, including John Smith Escapes Again! and How We Crossed the West. She lives in Virginia.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3–6—Among the new picture books about Darwin being published for his bicentennial birthday, this one stands up well. On the cover, a wide-eyed, handsome Charley Darwin peers through lush greenery at the top, and an equally wide-eyed and handsome monkey ignores him at the bottom. Inside, Schanzer uses Darwin's own words, taken from his journals, books, and letters, in the speech balloons of her graphic depiction of the voyage of the Beagle. This is not a full biography, but begins with Darwin's acceptance of the offer to sail on the expedition and ends with the presentation of his theory of evolution in 1860. Bright, watercolor cartoons accurately portray landscapes and specimens while also creating a vivid sense of adventure. Schanzer's dedication is to her rabbi grandfather, who served as an advisor to Clarence Darrow at the Scopes trial, but in this book for young children, the controversies that surround Darwin's theory are not presented. Similar to Kathryn Lasky's One Beetle Too Many (Candlewick), this title pairs up nicely with Alice McGinty's Darwin (Houghton, both 2009) to give young readers a picture of the man and his adventures.—Ellen Heath, Easton Area Public Library, Easton, PA
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About this edition

• Publisher: National Geographic Children's Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1426303971
• ISBN 13: 9781426303975
• Binding: Library Binding
• Number of pages: 48