Charles Darwin and the Theory of Natural Selection

Charles Darwin and the Theory of Natural SelectionRenee SkeltonBarron’s Educations Series, Inc. 1987ISBN 0-8120-3923-8 This book is an excellent resource in relation to learning about Charles Darwin and his theories, especially for people kike me that have a hard time grasping scientific concepts. Skelton writes this whole book in a language that almost anyone can understand. Yet it is factual enough to compare to our college level biology textbook.

This book is divided into twelve chapters, starting with chapters one and two being about Darwin’s early years. This was to give you a background of the actual man. Chapters three thru seven deal with Darwin’s travels including his infamous trip to the Galapagos Islands. This is where they begin to tie together his theories and the evidence that his experiments are producing to back up is theories. Chapters eight thru eleven deal with Darwin’s theory of evolution and his book On the Origin of the Species, as will as the debates that exist over these topics.

Charles Darwin, photographed by Julia Margaret Cam...

Charles Darwin as a young man, probably subsequent...

English: Charles Darwin (1809-1882) in his later y...

The final chapter ties Darwin’s life together and gives a small summary of how Darwin spent his later years.

This book did not contain a lot of illustration, but anytime they were trying to really illustrate a point a picture would be used. Especially in examples were they wanted to show minute changes Darwin found in his studies. The end of this book contained a great glossary for most of the words that had scientific meaning and were not used in everyday language. Once again to help people at all levels understand. It also had topics for discussion questions in the back to think on and talk with others about.

I have no criticisms for this book; I just would not recommend it to someone who already has a solid grip on this...