Life Through Time: The 700-Million-Year Story of Life on Earth

Lots to Look At, Not Much to Read Imagine crunching down 700 million years of life on Earth into just 30 pages... and you have this book. As you might imagine, it's a little light on the details and glosses over things that probably should not be. It starts with life growing in the oceans in the pre-Cambrian era and ends with the first farmers of the Holocene epoch. The last page shows how Earth itself changed over millions of years. Each two-page spread is beautifully illustrated with near painting-like quality and has a paragraph with a little information about the era and its predominant life forms. Around the border of the illustration are short factoids about the different creatures living at the time, including early humans. This book feels like more of a book to look at than to read as there isn't much text. One thing that certainly stands out is that humans have only been a part of Earth's history for a brief time. As you might imagine, the book has a fair amount of reptiles and dinosaurs, making it an excellent gift for an older dino-loving child. I received a free copy of the book, but that did not affect my review.