This is a book about evolution for young people around the age of twelve, plus or minus a couple of years. As Professor Jerry A. Coyne (Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago) points out in the foreword, while there are plenty of books on dinosaurs and fossils of all sorts (including the ancestors of humans), as well as a plethora of volumes on geology, zoology, botany, and general biology, for this age range, until now there has been a marked paucity of books for middle school readers specifically addressing evolution. This gap is all the more troublesome as it is during these crucial formative years that children should, in my opinion, be exposed to a clear understanding of just what biological evolution means and the diverse and overwhelming evidence that supports evolution via natural selection. In America today we are faced with a situation where a large proportion of the adult public doubts, or downright dismisses, biological evolution. Laurence Pringle’s new book may help to address this problem as the next generation matures. I have to admit that I was at first skeptical that the topic of evolution in all of its multiple facets could be dealt with sufficiently rigorously and also sufficiently comprehensively in a “book for children” (young teenagers are still children), but the author has succeeded admirably! Pringle has managed to address the major topics bearing on evolution in a relatively short, well-written, beautifully illustrated (glossy full-color photographs and diagrams throughout) book: paleontology, historical geology, rock dating techniques, Darwin and Wallace, genetics, “missing links”, island biogeography, plate tectonics, variation, competition, natural selection, coevolution, the concept of a species, and speciation (this is only a sampling of the topics covered). The text is up to date and authoritative throughout; it is a pleasure to read such a book and not find mistakes, even if only minor. The back matter includes an index, sources, and suggested resources for further information, as well as an extremely useful glossary. I believe our nation would be served well if every twelve-year-old had access to a copy of this book. I can envision making it required reading in all schools.--Robert M. Schoch, Boston University,  Boston, MA