For such a broad subject, it is a bit lacking in information. The graphics are interesting but I think the children who would be most interested in this would benefit from more details. This is only the length of a picture book - I think expanding this to more the size of typical non-fiction would've been wise.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lots to Look At, Not Much to Read

Imagine crunching down 700 million years of life on Earth into just 30 pages... and you have this book. It starts with life growing in the oceans in the pre-Cambrian era and ends with the first farmers of the Holocene epoch. The last page shows how Earth itself changed over millions of years. Each two-page spread is beautifully illustrated with near painting-like quality and has a paragraph with a little information about the era and its predominant life forms. Around the border of the illustration are short factoids about the different creatures living at the time, including early humans. This book feels like more of a book to look at than to read as there isn't much text. One thing that certainly stands out is that humans have only been a part of Earth's history for a brief time. As you might imagine, the book has a fair amount of reptiles and dinosaurs, making it an excellent gift for an older dino-loving child.

Like Through Time is a typically excellent DK work, filled with informative text and vivid, detailed images. I’d call this one more a timeline than a “book” in that it covers so much so fast that there really isn’t time for full descriptions or explanations, relying instead on a listing of events and brief descriptions of creatures. But as a concise timeline of life’s deep history, it’s excellent.

It begins with the Cambrian explosion 500 million years ago and jumps (large jumps of millions of years at first, then hundreds of thousands, then thousands) era to era until it closes with the Holocene and the rise of “The First Farmers.” If I had any wish, it were that they’d devoted an entire panel to human evolution, and maybe covered the rised of large-scale civilizations as well at the very end. But as it stands, this is an excellent resource to offer a quick introduction or refresher, placing everything in an easier context.

Life Through Time: The 700-Million-Year Story of Life on Earth by John Woodward is a book that uses panoramic images to tell the story of life on Earth, from its earliest origins to the present day. The amazing story of life's evolution begins in vast oceans and swamp forests and is shaken by dramatic extinctions caused by ice, violent volcanic eruptions, and meteor impacts. It explores geological time and the origins of species that still exist today in early fish, amphibians, birds, reptiles, and mammals. It takes readers up to the appearance of our first human ancestors around 6 million years ago, the evolution of hunter-gathering Homo sapiens in the Ice Age, Stone Age farmers, the earliest civilization in Mesopotamia, the effects of the Industrial Revolution on the natural world, and people living with nature in the modern world.

Life Through Time is a book that makes great use of bold, full page images depicting the development of life on our planet. The images have great detail, and every time I look I see something that I had not noticed before. I thought that the texted was well done, accessible and interesting. The little snippets pulling out images and extra information about specific creatures or features were also very well done. A great deal was covered, but thanks to the artwork the depth of information in those little paragraphs never became overwhelming. I thought the chart at the very end of the book that showed how the planet has shifted and changed just as much as the life that calls it home was a nice addition. A great deal of time was covered in just over thirty pages, I would have loved to see it extend just a bit longer into human civilization. We make up such a short part of this planet's history that one page more would have been enough, but I understand why thy might not have done so.

Overall, I really enjoyed Life Through Time and think it will appeal to many young readers. It would be well loved in a public, school, or personal library.

A visual delight for anyone! Plenty of information included in just the pictures. Readers looking to have a better understanding of prehistoric life will enjoy this. Thorough and worth a purchase in all collections. This is a book where readers will learn something new everytime they open it up.

This is a well illustrated, short look at the history of life on earth. With so few pages, it requires huge leaps in time and obviously can only show a few snapshots of life over the eons and leaves many unanswered questions for kids. The spreads go across the pages and each one tells of a different era with lush pictures of lots of animals and plants in an imaged scene from that time. Around the edges of the picture are tiny pictures of some of the creatures that existed in that era.

I read a digital ARC for review, and the quality of the images was extremely poor. It was even hard to read the text. Another reviewer mentioned this also and said that Net Galley may have lowered their file size limit. This may be because they're trying to get people to switch to their new proprietary download format (which I don't wish to use). I've noticed it in other books recently too, and it makes it very difficult to review the books. This is not the fault of the book, but I wasn't able to read all of the small text and it was hard to really get a feel for the images. I'm sure the final version will be excellent for consumers.

Life Through Time: The 700-Million-Year Story of Life on Earth is very well written and beautifully illustrated. With vivid and realistic panoramic illustrations and interesting facts, this book is sure to captivate its target audience, children 7 to 11 years of age.

I especially like how the life forms in the illustrations are labeled and how the short factoids surround each of the illustrations.

Well done, Mr. Woodward, well done!

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher DK Children for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions stated here are my own.

How I wish I had such book as a child! Beautiful and informative, it guides a reader through the whole history of life on our planet. The popular dinosaurs are prominent, but there are also many less known periods and creatures. The astonishing graphics are full of intriguing details, they are made for studying for hours on end.

Perfect for fans of "Animalium" and similar atlases. It's addressed to children, but it will be a pleasure for every adult as well.

Thanks to the publisher, DK, and NetGalley for the advance copy of this book.