Our Family Tree by Lisa Westberg Peters

This is a story about evolution and how humans came to be. It starts with the first cells and continues on through history until we transformed into humans.

I think this book was interesting and it would be a really good way to teach evolution because it puts it in a very basic way and at the end there is a time line of where humans started and where they are now. I think that this is a book that would be great for families because parents could read this to their children if they believed in evolution. However, I don't believe this book has a place in a classroom unless there is a book about creationism as well. Having this book alone would seem to be supporting one theory over another and I don't think it is the school's place to say which is correct. Also, if a student has been taught creationism at home or at church and then reads this book and asks a teacher about it I think it would be difficult to answer a lot of the students questions without crossing the thin line between church and state. However, I think that evolution and creationism are important topics and that if one theory is going to be supported in a classroom then the other should be as well. If this book were in my classroom I could not see justifying it's place there without offering a book about creationism because this would single out those students who do not believe in evolution. I think a classroom should be a place that welcomes all ideas and not just some of them.