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Evolution

The Story of Life on Earth

Written by Jay Hosler; Art by Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon

Hill and Wang

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ISBN10: 0809043114
ISBN13: 9780809043118

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160 Pages

$18.00

CA$24.00

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An American Library Association Great Graphic Novel for Teens Winner

Evolution, the most accessible graphic work on this universally studied subject, takes the reader from
earth's primordial soup to the vestigial structures, like the coccyx and the male nipple, of modern humans. Once again, the award-winning illustrations of the Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon render the complex clear and everything cleverly comedic. In Jay Hosler, Evolution has an award-winning biology teacher and a noted comic author whose science comics have earned him a National Science Foundation grant.

Evolution features the same characters introduced in the highly regarded The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA, now here to explain the fundamentals of the evolution of life on earth. On the heels of explaining to his planetary leader the intricacies of human genetics in The Stuff of Life, the intrepid alien scientist Bloort-183 is charged in this sequel with covering the wider story of evolution. Using the same storytelling conceit that Plenty magazine declared "so charming that you won't even notice you've absorbed an entire scientific field" and that caused Seed to pick The Stuff of Life as a best book of 2008, Evolution brilliantly answers Wired's demand, "What's the solution to America's crisis in science education? More comic books!"

Reviews

Praise for Evolution

"Biology is a dynamic subject and I am always looking for new ways to reach my teenage students. Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth was an excellent way to reinforce the concepts we cover in class. The graphic novel was written and illustrated in such a way that automatically grabbed the students' interest. Students learn best when they are having fun in the midst of it. This entertaining and engaging book makes learning enjoyable. As a teacher who tries to keep up with the latest biological news, I was very impressed with the inclusion of exciting new research and discoveries, including Richard Lenski's work E.coli and Neil Shubin's Tiktaalik. Evolution: The Story of Life on Earth drew connections to the different concepts covered in my curriculum; it legitimized the extra books and articles I use as resources in my classroom. The students were happily surprised when they saw drawings and references to things they had already learned. They particularly liked the pages with the beautiful dinosaur illustrations."—Bertha Vasquez, Biology Teacher, George Washington Carver Middle School, Miami, Florida

"If you like comics, you'll like this book. If you're interested in evolution, you'll like it even better. It's got a lot of information presented with a lot of fun. Ideal for high school and college students and teachers, and anyone who wants to enjoy the story of evolution."—Kevin Padian, President, National Center for Science Education

"From obsequious extraterrestrials to s'mores-eating early humans, this serious comic book manages to be fun and entertaining as well as accurate. (Maybe not about ancestral marshmallows, but readers will sort out the humor and snark from the science!) The story of evolution on Earth has rarely been presented in quite so entertaining a manner."—Eugenie C. Scott, Executive Director, National Center for Science Education

"It's hard to imagine instructional science cartooning better than this. The Cannons (who are unrelated, by the way) keep every creature they're called upon to depict—be it cell, dinosaur, dodo, or Darwin—perky but never ridiculous, and Hosler, like Mark Schultz in [The Stuff of Life], balances science and humor superbly. Complete with glossary, this delightful book seems ideal for nonscientists who want to entertainingly brush up their knowledge of evolution as well as for students from middle school on up."—Ray Olson, Booklist

"Featuring the same amusing characters as those found in Mark Schultz's The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA, Hosler's sequel does for natural selection what its predecessor did for human genetics. The intrepid Glargalian scientist, Bloort 183, has returned and serves as the book's principal narrator. This time he has invited King Floorsh 727 and Prince Floorsh 418 on a tour of the newly opened Glargalian Holographic Museum of Earth Evolution. Hosler is also a professor of biology and provides readers with much more than a simple graphic primer on evolution. With the Cannons' wonderful illustrations providing a visual anchor, Hosler discusses everything from the atomic to the planetary, from endosymbiosis to mass extinction . . . Readers should find at the end of their journey through Bloort's Holographic Museum that they've learned a tremendous amount about earth's evolution, and have had more than their fair share of amusement in doing so."—Publishers Weekly

Reviews from Goodreads

About the author

Written by Jay Hosler; Art by Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon

Jay Hosler, a professor of biology at Juniata College and the author/illustrator of three graphic novels, lives in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon, the illustrators of numerous graphic novels and comic books, both live in Minneapolis.

Jay Hosler
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