From Lava to Life
 Jennifer Morgan & Dana Lynne Andersen
 (Reviewed by The Editor - Rebecca Brown)
 2003 Dawn Publications
  ISBN: 1584690429


The Universe Tells Our Earth Story about the beginning of life from bacteria to jellyfish to flowers to dinosaurs.

From Lava to Life is a science story that is yours too, of your living Earth & the unbroken chain that connects you to the very first twitch of life in the sea four billions years ago.

“How did our universe, in all its majesty, come to be what it is today? Why is life so diverse? So complex? Humans have wrestled with these questions for thousands of years. You can imagine our ancestors, long, long ago, huddled around campfires on cold nights, telling stories to understand these great mysteries. All over the world, people told creation stories that came straight from their hearts and dreams. Some of these very same stories continue to nourish us today.” Page 44.

Jennifer Morgan & Dana Lynne Andersen have set about telling this immense story, first in their Born With a Bang & now From Lava to Life. Told as if the Universe has patted its lap & invited to you up for grand story, she takes you back into a time before time, when the Earth was formed, long, long before you or I were motes of dust in the storm. Long before dinosaurs were born & flowers grew.

Told in a confidential, amusing & lyrical turn of phrase, From Lava to Life spills the beans on how life began here from microscopic cells in a churning brew of chemicals as our raw orb rolled around the heavens.

Fascinating images! Dana Lynn Andersen captures our imagination with her broad strokes of things bigger & smaller than one pair of eyes can see. Jennifer Morgan's sense of humor is both reverential & irreverent, charming & instructive.

If you are stumped when your kids ask the oldest of questions: “Where did I come from?”--then From Lava to Life is the book for you!

More from Dawn Pulications:
My Favorite Tree by Diane Iverson.
A Tree in the Ancient Forest by Carol Reed–Jones.
Grandpa's Garden by Shea Darian, Illustrated by Karlyn Holman.
Under One Rock: Bugs, Slugs and other Ughs by Anthony Fredericks.
This is the Sea that Feeds Us by Robert F. Baldwin.
Do Animals Have Feelings? by David Rice.
Girls Who Looked Under Rocks: The Lives of Six Pioneering Naturalists by Jeanine Atkins.

“Dawn Publications is dedicated to inspiring in children a deeper understanding and appreciation for all life on Earth. www.dawnpub.com or 800.545.7475.”
(03/30/03)

Rebecca