We Go Way Back

Starred review from December 19, 2022
In casual, erudite prose, Ben-Barak (There’s a Skeleton Inside You!) explains what is known about how life began. “What is life?” he starts. “You have it.... A starfish has it.... A car doesn’t have it.” A spiraling line of type provides a simple, memorable formulation: “Life Is the Way That Some Things Make More Things That Are a Lot Like Themselves but Sometimes a Little Bit Different. Sort of.” Relaying where life came from, the pages go “way back” to a young world of exploding volcanoes, flowing water, and striking lightning. Though it’s not known where or exactly how, lines clarify, elements became molecules, and molecules joined to make small bubbles. Eventually, one “very clever little bubble” was able to produce more bubbles “That Were a Lot Like Itself but Sometimes a Little Bit Different.” From there, the process complexifies for “literally billions of years,” eventually reaching the present panoply of life on Earth, shown in a family tree so large it sprawls across a gatefold spread. Bunting (Your Planet Needs You) illustrates with punchy, sign-like images that take on visual complexity as the story rolls forward. It’s an engaging, lucidly written volume that’s refreshingly open about the parts of the sequence that remain unknown. Ages 4–8.

December 1, 2022

Gr 1-4-From the author of Do Not Lick This Book comes an answer to the question, "What is life?" Illustrations and text work together masterfully to bring the concept of life and how it began to a young audience. Children ask big questions about their existence and this title does an excellent job of breaking the beginning of life on Earth into easy-to-understand pieces. Several wordless spreads show the slow development and increasing complexity of life. Ending with a dramatic gatefold that captures the diversity of life on Earth branching out from a very cute and shiny single-celled organism, this title will be enjoyed by a wide audience of casual browsers as well as science classes looking for clear and engaging answers to very large questions. VERDICT This title will be a welcome addition to collections where smartly delivered complex science is appreciated.-John Scott

Copyright 2022 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from November 1, 2022
A look back at the beginnings of life on Earth, capped by a populous double-gatefold family tree. In a concise yet pithy, playful, and deeply insightful storyline that dovetails nicely with Karen Krossing's One Tiny Bubble, illustrated by Dawn Lo (2022), Ben-Barak and Bunting begin by pointing out that despite diverse looks and likes, we all have one thing in common: life. And what is that? Following definitions proposed by a gallery of unidentified thinkers, including cartoon-style but recognizable versions of Darwin ("Self-reproduction with variation!") and Spinoza ("A mechanism"), the scene shifts back to our planet's early days to track the assembly of loose elements into complex molecules, then simple organisms that could make copies--each, moreover, "a Little Bit Different." A "while" later ("Literally billions of years," as a footnote explains), here we are...bursting into view on the climactic gatefold in teeming lines of developing flora and fauna that all, from single-celled prokaryotes at the bottom to a dark-skinned, shorts-wearing preteen near (not at) the top, share both life and slightly stunned expressions conveyed by googly pop eyes. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Sneakily cerebral for all its apparent simplicity. (Informational picture book. 6-9)

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Starred review from March 1, 2023
Ben-Barak and Bunting have impressively produced a thought-provoking, scientifically precise, and accessible explanation of the origins of life and evolution across Earth's history for a young audience. Ideas about life, time, and heredity are conveyed through friendly illustrations and simple sentences (albeit with some sophisticated vocabulary). The book opens with questions that children may ask about their human families and histories: "What is life?" "How did I get it?" A deceptively modest reply, its last phrase repeated throughout the book, serves as an organizing concept as the origins of cellular organisms are explained: "Life Is the Way That Some Things Make More Things That Are a Lot Like Themselves but Sometimes a Little Bit Different." In the final pages, a gorgeous gatefold illustration invites readers to spot familiar plants and creatures (including a human) and trace their paths back to the first cell -- a "very clever little bubble." If readers pause to let the statements sink in and look closely at the details in the finely crafted illustrations, they'll find clever subtleties that invite further contemplation about what makes "all of us." Danielle J. Ford

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

January 1, 2023
Ben-Barak and Bunting have impressively produced a thought-provoking, scientifically precise, and accessible explanation of the origins of life and evolution across Earth's history for a young audience. Ideas about life, time, and heredity are conveyed through friendly illustrations and simple sentences (albeit with some sophisticated vocabulary). The book opens with questions that children may ask about their human families and histories: "What is life?" "How did I get it?" A deceptively modest reply, its last phrase repeated throughout the book, serves as an organizing concept as the origins of cellular organisms are explained: "Life Is the Way That Some Things Make More Things That Are a Lot Like Themselves but Sometimes a Little Bit Different." In the final pages, a gorgeous gatefold illustration invites readers to spot familiar plants and creatures (including a human) and trace their paths back to the first cell -- a "very clever little bubble." If readers pause to let the statements sink in and look closely at the details in the finely crafted illustrations, they'll find clever subtleties that invite further contemplation about what makes "all of us."

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)