One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin Book

While Kathryn Lasky's One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin is of course not a comprehensive and all encompassing biography of Charles Darwin (but rather a short and concise picture book format analysis and interpretation of his life and times, primarily geared towards older children from about the age of nine onwards), it is most definitely more than thorough enough to adequately and indeed also with a lively and readable, approachable narrative cover and examine Darwin's life and his oh so important contributions to science and the history of science (with the author's text of course and naturally focussing in particular on Charles Darwin's voyages employed as chief naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle and how his travels, how the many different species of animals, as well as the different landscapes and geologic features Darwin saw and encountered whilst on his journeys helped to both jump start and later firmly cement into place his theory of evolution, and that the earth was thus and indeed not just thousands of years but millions upon millions of years old, with the majority of changes happening slowly, evolving over long periods of time and that the earth, including us humans, was therefore also not created in one short seven day stretch as is related in the Old Testament of the Bible).

And truly, One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin is in my humble opinion not only a great but also a very much balanced introduction to Darwin and his theory of evolution, showing both Darwin's life and the many critcisms and struggles he encountered with regard to his findings, musings and resulting theories (both from his nearest and dearest, from his family, and of course and I guess naturally, also from the establishment, and that his theories were attacked and often severely and lastingly so by not only the clergy but also by many scientists of Darwin's era). But appreciably and for me personally very much laudable, Kathryn Lasky also always strives to point out that while Charles Darwin did not consider the Bible as infallible and thus also did not consider the creation story as related in Genesis as in any manner true and believable, he also ALWAYS did believe in God as the creator and that his theory of evolution actually is thus a decidedly deistic type of consideration, with God providing the spark so to speak and then evolution kicking in with life etc. changing slowly and according to natural selection over long time frames (and considering that I myself am very much a deistic evolutionist, I have most certainly heartily appreciated reading about and realising in One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin that the so-called father of evolution, that Charles Darwin himself, obviously also was a strong believer in deism and that while many staunch creationists might indeed claim that Charles Darwin was an atheist, he obviously was NOT that by any stretch of the imaginatiom, for while he might have with justification questioned the Bible's veracity and even the divinity of Jesus Christ, Charles Darwin never ever did question or deny the concept of there being a creator, of there being a supreme deity.

Now with regard to Matthew Truman's accompanying illustrations, while I have found them expressive and at times even rather fun, personally, I do find especially the often caricature like human figures a trifle too unserious for my own personal amd aesthetic tastes (and with that I mean to say that while I do like and enjoy Trueman's pictures, I am actually really neither all that much impressed nor am I unimpressed, that they do provide a decent accompaniment to and for Kathryn Lasky's narrative, but that to and for me, One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin does not really even require illustrations and that if truth be told, the illustrations and especially the at times a bit exaggerated facial features of the humans depicted kind of feel a bit potentially visually distracting to me). Four stars for One Beetle Too Many: The Extraordinary Adventures of Charles Darwin (and highly recommended), with the inclusion of the short but detailed bibliography at the back being the absolute icing on the cake for me (and while an accompanying bibliography really should be totally expected and a basic requirement in and for a completely non fiction biography on Charles Darwin, the fact that there so often is a lack of such for me oh so academically necessary inclusions in especially non fiction books geared to children, this indeed does make me appreciate that Kathryn Lasky has included a detailed and informative bibliography all the more).