Island: A Story of the Galápagos

Readers witness the six-million-year development of classic biogeography example the Galápagos. The organizational structure--five chronological chapters--echoes the story line and underscores the ecological message. Gorgeous illustrations include sweeping double-page spreads and panels arranged to show dynamic changes (e.g., species adaptation). Back matter addresses natural selection, volcano formation/plate tectonics, and endemic species. An author's note discusses scientific facts versus speculation.

Beginning six million years ago, Chin takes readers back in time to witness the development of that classic example of island biogeography, the Galápagos. Chapter one -- "Birth" -- begins with the undersea eruptions that form a new (hypothetical) island in the chain. The first mangrove seeds are deposited by the sea, and the island’s population gradually increases as the ecosystem develops and expands (chapter two: "Childhood: Five Million Years Ago"). The third chapter -- "Adulthood: Three Million Years Ago" -- discusses in some depth the unique and varied animal species of the Galápagos, providing a brilliantly clear, accurate, and age-level-appropriate explanation of natural selection in the very species that Darwin himself observed. A dramatic fourth chapter -- "Old Age: One Million Years Ago" -- details the island sinking into the sea, while an epilogue (simply titled "1835," the year of Darwin’s famous visit) hints at what’s to come. The text’s organizational structure nicely echoes the story line and underscores the ecological message. Chin’s gorgeous illustrations include sweeping double-page spreads of the island and its inhabitants and rectilinear panels of varying sizes, sometimes arranged in groups of three or four to show dynamic changes such as the eruption of a volcano, the movements of a lizard across the ocean bed, or species adaptations over generations. Back matter includes information about Darwin and natural selection; hot-spot volcano formation and plate tectonics; the Galápagos’s endemic species (also shown on the front endpapers); and a map (on the back endpapers). An author’s note discusses the story’s scientific facts versus speculation. danielle j. ford