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Evolution as seen by an alien

Evolution: The story of life on Earth is an ingenious comic book that puts Darwin's theory in a new perspective – that of fictional extraterrestrials

IT IS not often that the books I am asked to review go missing. After hours of searching, I found the errant item, with the spine cracked, in my teenage son’s room – an otherwise book-free zone. I can offer no higher recommendation.

This superb comic book tells the story of terrestrial evolution from the perspective of creatures from a planet called Glargal. The development of life on Earth, from primitive cellular organisms to Homo sapiens, is presented by the alien scientist Bloort-183 via an interactive hologram to the king of Glargal and his son. They urgently need to understand evolutionary adaptation, as their own planet faces an unspecified “genetic crisis”, and Earth may offer some clues on how to avert it.

I am not sure why comic books make words like alpha-proteobacteria less daunting, but they do. Every classroom should have this book.

Evolution: The story of life on Earth

Jay Hosler, illustrated by Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon

Hill and Wang

Topics: Books and art

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