The Story Of Life

The Story: Life

'Life provides infinite shades of light and dark...' Victoria Hislop, bestselling author and champion of the short story, has chosen her favourite short stories by women writers. Here are prizewinners, famous wits, well-known feminists, national treasures and rising stars. All the stories in this volume are about life – happy, sad, mundane and extraordinary – it is captured here in all its rich variety. CONTRIBUTORS: Willa Cather, Virginia Woolf, Ellen Gilchrist, Dorothy Parker, Doris Lessing, Penelope Fitzgerald, Margaret Atwood, Penelope Lively, Anita Desai, Alice Munro, Elspeth Davie, Penelope Fitzgerald, Alice Walker, A. M. Homes, Anne Enright, Elizabeth Jolley, Jane Gardam, Alison Lurie, Nicola Barker, Jennifer Egan, Muriel Spark, Hilary Mantel, A. S. Byatt, Maggie Gee, Ali Smith, A. L. Kennedy, Polly Samson, Helen Simpson and Stella Duffy.

Story of Life

At first, nothing lived on Earth. It was a noisy, hot, scary place. Choking gas exploded from volcanoes and oceans of lava bubbled around the globe... Then in the deep, dark ocean, something amazing happened. This is an exciting and dramatic story about how life began and developed on Planet Earth, written especially for younger children. The authors explain how the first living cell was created, and how the cells multiply and create jellyfish and worms, and then fish with bendy necks, which drag themselves out of the water into swampy forests. They tell the story of the biggest creatures that have ever walked on land - the dinosaurs. Long after that, hairy creatures who have babies, not eggs, take over, stand on two legs and spread around the world, some of them living through cataclysmic events such as ice ages and volcanic eruptions. Everyone living today is related to these survivors. With delightful illustrations including lots of detail and humour, all carefully researched and checked, this book shows the development of life on Earth in a truly accessible and simple way. CLICK HERE to download Teachers' Notes specially written by the authors, Catherine Barr and Steve Williams, to assist teachers and librarians in the promotion and teaching of The Story of Lifein schools and to help foster a love of good books, literature and reading in children.

Wild and tame: pictures and pages of animal life