cover image Life Story

Life Story

Virginia Lee Burton, . . Houghton Mifflin, $22 (67pp) ISBN 978-0-547-20359-1

“Our sun is not the biggest star, nor is it the smallest, but to us it is the most important star of all.” Burton's 1962 exploration of the history of life on Earth, framed as a five-act play, returns in a newly updated edition that takes current scientific information into account (Pluto, for instance, is not among the planets shown orbiting the sun). Beginning with the birth of the Sun and continuing through the Earth's creation, the emergence and evolution of animal life, up to the changing seasons of the present, it's a lyrical and informative journey. Ages 8–12. (Nov.)