Heavy Questions from my 5 year old son

May 8, 2005 6:40 PM

"Daddy, where do we come from? How did people get here?". I love my inquisitive little guy! Can anyone point me to a good illustrated resource on evolutionary biology for little kids?
posted by Scoo to Science & Nature (9 answers total)

Response by poster: He's five years old BTW, my bad.
posted by Scoo at 6:40 PM on May 8, 2005

I'm guessing that Lisa Peters' book (I haven't read it) Our Family Tree might help. It looks like a good picture book on evolution.
posted by gnat at 7:17 PM on May 8, 2005

I loved the Prehistoric Zoobooks series. If he gets bored with reading about single cells clumping together, there's always the dinosaurs. Great illustration throughout. My family's copy is falling apart.

Unfortunately. it looks like you can't get them anymore. Try your library or something online.
posted by easyasy3k at 7:43 PM on May 8, 2005

....don't come looking here in Kansas. :(
posted by joshgray at 8:22 PM on May 8, 2005

I like the Eyewitness Books series and they have one on Evolution. Nominally for ages 9-12 but I'm assuming Metafilter kids are above grade level!
posted by nicwolff at 9:54 PM on May 8, 2005

My little girl (4) and I have had talks about evolution, but we haven't gone too far yet. She can see patterns like related animal species (dinosaurs/lizards, people/chimps, cats/lions) and I've suggested that over a very long time things change and develop. I've also talked about genetic inheritance (doesn't Ruby look like her mum and sister, but not like you).
This seems to be enough, so far, and I'm waiting for her to ask for more details. It hasn't hurt to ask some leading questions though (so what sort of animals at the zoo do dinosaurs look like?).
I haven't got a book to recommend, but maybe a trip to the museum or zoo?
posted by bystander at 11:45 PM on May 8, 2005

The first thing I thought of was The Way Life Works but it's probably not appropriate for another 4-5 years. Kind of like David Macaulay's The Way Things Work for biology. Great book, though, and the last chapter is on evolution.
posted by grouse at 12:10 AM on May 9, 2005

My anthro professor at UCSC wrote The Human Evolution Coloring Book. The text is quite dense, definitely too much for a five-year-old, but the illustrations are great and combined with the colouring-in may be a good educational tool. It covers pretty much all aspects of human/primate evolution on a basic level and goes into depth on stuff like locomotion, "family trees", and genetics.
posted by tracicle at 2:38 AM on May 9, 2005

I've linked it before and I'll link it again: you can't beat a good synthesis.
posted by flabdablet at 8:16 AM on May 9, 2005