The Tree of Life: A Book Depicting the Life of Charles Darwin: Naturalist, Geologist, & Thinker Book

Although and indeed thankfully not quite as massively and painfully difficult on the eyes and thus also not quite as personally frustrating to and for me as Peter Sís' Caldecott Honour winning picture book on Galileo (which I actually ended up really NOT liking at all because I literally could not physically read much if not most of the supplemental information presented) his The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin (Which of course is all about about the life and accomplishments of 19th century British naturalist Charles Darwin, the so called "father of the theory of evolution"), also does still display some of the same issues and annoyances as the former (namely a generally decent and engaging enough main narrative, with much interesting and valuable supplemental information that is unfortunately presented in very small, well, actually more like minuscule font sizes so as to often necessitate the use of reading glasses and sometimes even a magnifying glass).

And combined with the fact that The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin also does not (and once again) contain ANY type of a bibliography with suggestions for further reading (which would greatly increase both teaching and learning values and potentials and should really be a given and even a requirement for this type of history of science based non fiction picture book), while I do much appreciate the information presented and find especially the fact that Charles Darwin had not only issues with the general British establishment with regard to his theories of natural science and evolution (especially and namely the Church) but also with his own nearest and dearest, with his own family (and especially his father obviously much resented his son becoming a naturalist) both interesting and worthy of being more publicly known, presented and discussed, the manner in which Peter Sís has decided to show, to feature most of the additional details (the information above and beyond the main plot and narrative) does make a comfortable and easy perusal of The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin rather limited at best (and definitely often more of a reading chore than in any manner a pleasure).

And with regard to the accompanying illustrations, while I do think they are descriptive and intriguingly detailed (and very much demonstrate Peter Sís' artistic acumen and abilities), I for one and personally do find some of them a bit overly exaggerated (and indeed even potentially creepy) and the often green and brown colour schemes a bit monotonous and bland. The illustrations do, I guess, work well enough with the presented text, providing an entrancing and evocative mirror of the same, but I cannot say that I would consider them in any way personal favourites (and actually would go so far as to state that I have enjoyed other artwork by Peter Sís considerably more than his illustrations for The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin). And thus, while I do still recommend The Tree of Life: Darwin, I do so only with some major reservations (and with the caveat that there are sadly once again potential issues with being able to easily read and discern rather much of the supplemental details).