‘We Go Way Back’ is a book about life on earth, how it all began and its inhabitants. In dealing with the big questions of life, heredity and evolution, it succeeds in making these concepts comprehensible, and also entertaining.
Initially there is a double page featuring a group of culturally diverse people questioning how life began. These people reveal that they do not know exactly where or how life began although we know that elements like carbon, oxygen and other elements in the earth’s seas joined together to form molecules. These then ‘flowed together’ to form small bubbles which in turn formed together to make copies of themselves. Sound simple? Both author and illustrator have a special talent for explaining such complex concepts. There is a set of three double pages which explore possible beginnings, ask questions then detail what we do know. Pictured on a black glossy double page is a wide array of colourful and highly active sea creatures.
The next to final page heightens suspense with these words: ‘In time we found new spaces to be in, new places we could go, new ways to live.’ That first little bubble becomes … all of us.’ Then, a mesmerising, enormous and highly appealing gatefold offers the finale for this book which is simultaneously informative and enormous fun. Both familiar and unfamiliar flora and fauna from single-celled prokaryotes at the bottom to a preteen near the top, all with captivating expressions.
Philip Bunting says he wanted ‘to translate complex ideas as simply as possible, in an effort to encourage or stimulate young minds to ask questions.’ Idan Ben-Barak holds degrees in medical science and microbiology. In writing about this subject, he explains, ‘I wrote this book trying very, very hard to find the absolutely simplest way of explaining a complicated subject …. we don’t know what actually happened for life to have arisen, we don’t have an agreed-upon definition of life.’
Picture Books for Older Readers
