"Why does my Grandfather, Charles Darwin, act so strangely?" asks Bernard Darwin. He notices that Baba, his grandfather, does strange things like make faces in the mirror, have pet earthworms, and daydream frequently. The cook and the gardener seem to find Mr. Darwin's behavior worrisome-maybe he just needs something to keep himself busy. Bernard decides to find out why his grandfather acts so strangely. The story is fiction, but all the characters really lived and might have interacted as they do in the story (see annotated list of all characters at the end). It is a good introduction to the life of Charles Darwin for children of 8 or older but most adults, who may want to read the story with their children, will find out something they did not know about Darwin. You will learn about Darwin's voyage around the world with Captain FitzRoy, the earthquake in Chile, the fossils in the Andes and Patagonia, and the eye-opening experience of visiting the Galapagos Islands that led Darwin to formulate his ideas about biological evolution. He explains to his grandson Natural Selection, the driving force of evolution, the Economy of Nature, the result of the fierce competition between organisms that are constantly under the pressure of natural selection, and why it is that he makes faces in the mirror. And they perform an experiment together on earthworms that really happened, using a piano played by Bernard's grandmother.
"Why does my Grandfather, Charles Darwin, act so strangely?" asks Bernard Darwin. He notices that Baba, his grandfather, does strange things like make faces in the mirror, have pet earthworms, and daydream frequently. The cook and the gardener seem to find Mr. Darwin's behavior worrisome-maybe he just needs something to keep himself busy. Bernard decides to find out why his grandfather acts so strangely. The story is fiction, but all the characters really lived and might have interacted as they do in the story (see annotated list of all characters at the end). It is a good introduction to the life of Charles Darwin for children of 8 or older but most adults, who may want to read the story with their children, will find out something they did not know about Darwin. You will learn about Darwin's voyage around the world with Captain FitzRoy, the earthquake in Chile, the fossils in the Andes and Patagonia, and the eye-opening experience of visiting the Galapagos Islands that led Darwin to formulate his ideas about biological evolution. He explains to his grandson Natural Selection, the driving force of evolution, the Economy of Nature, the result of the fierce competition between organisms that are constantly under the pressure of natural selection, and why it is that he makes faces in the mirror. And they perform an experiment together on earthworms that really happened, using a piano played by Bernard's grandmother.
