Module 7: One Beetle Too Many

Summary:
Charles Darwin was a man of many interests but few real talents and certainly not ambition in most cases. Taking a detailed yet concise look at Charles Darwin's sordid career history and eventual discovery, One Beetle Too Many is a biography with lots of personal and professional information about Charles Darwin's life and basic terminology related to the Origin of the Species. Geared toward upper elementary and middle school students, this biography teaches about who Charles Darwin was a as person, but it also highlights his messy path.


Lasky, K. (2009). One beetle too many: The extraordinary adventures of Charles Darwin. Somerville, Mass.: Candlewick Press.

Review: School Library Journal
Large and humorous mixed-media illustrations will draw children to this large-format biography. Using watercolor, graphite pencil, gouache, acrylic ink, colored pencil, and collage, Trueman captures Darwin's world and adventures. Cartoon-like people have prominent noses, expressive faces, and enormous hands. Throughout, the naturalist appears to be both curious and hapless, a description he might have given himself in his own modest journals. Lasky's text balances the exuberant artwork with well-organized information, gracefully sprinkling in quotes from Darwin's own writing. Touching briefly on his childhood, the text devotes most of the space to Darwin's years on the Beagle, explaining how his discoveries in geology, paleontology, and animal anatomy on that trip led to his theory about evolution. Lasky uses Darwin's own words to show that he questioned the literal nature of the Bible and the divinity of Jesus, but that he wrote several times praising God as the Creator. Although the text is brief, it creates a clear view of a man who was troubled by the implications of his observations and who, at the end of his life, was more interested in experimenting with earthworms and carnivorous plants than in promoting his theory.

Heath, E. (2009). One beetle too many: The extraordinary adventures of Charles Darwin. School Library Journal, 55(1), 127-128.

My Impressions:
Informational texts are supposed to impart information to their readers. This juvenile biography gives a semi-complex look at the starting ideas and experiences of Charles Darwin that would shape his scientific understanding and come up with the origin of the species, or evolution. The illustrations are colorful and childlike making the text approachable and easy to follow in smaller chunks. When reading through the book, you can jump between main progressions in Charles's life because the book is divided into chapters. Scientific conclusions and explanations are added within the text to back-up and support the observations seen by Charles. That pattern helps fill out the readers' depth of understanding. 

Library Use: 
One Beetle Too Many could be used as part of a monthly theme in the library that highlights innovators and important individuals in the scientific community. This display could coincide with the school Science Fair to spark enthusiasm for science and promote curriculum alignment across campus.