Out of the Blue: How Animals Evolved from Prehistoric Seas

Abstract

Elizabeth Shreeve’s children’s book Out of the Blue: How Animals Evolved from Prehistoric Seas bravely tackles an often-avoided topic by elementary school teachers—evolution. Ambitiously, it covers not only all of geological time in its 32 pages but also major evolutionary speciation events, major extinction events, and even how humans evolved from tetrapods. While two of my favorite groups of organisms (Platyhelminthes and Nematoda, the flatworms and roundworms) didn’t make the cut, every other major animal group is addressed at some point in this period-leaping chronicle.Throughout the book, Shreeve weaves the tale of animal evolution both in water and on land into a cohesive story appropriate for K–5 elementary students; however, according to the author, it specifically targets the Next Generation Science Standards three-dimensional grade bands of grades 3–5. Shreeve even starts her tale with an anchoring phenomenon and driving question about the evolutionary relatedness of three organisms: hippos, dolphins, and sharks. Each page is a stepping stone on the journey to answering how a land animal (like a hippo) could be more closely related to a sea animal (like a dolphin) than a shark. If discovering the answer to the main question isn’t compelling enough, each page also allows students to become familiar with various prehistoric organisms, including a fan favorite, Helicoprion—the buzzsaw killer of the Permian!Out of the Blue is a user-friendly book, not just on account of the beautiful illustrations (created by Frann Preston-Gannon) and the easy-to-follow journey through time but also because of the fact that Shreeve has developed an entire curriculum and video series to accompany the book. The curriculum guide offers students the opportunity to engage with the evidence relevant to deep time, natural selection, adaptation, biodiversity, and much more. It even allows elementary students to tackle their first cladogram! By providing teachers with ready-made lessons, Shreeve increases the chance that her book will be used in classrooms, as it amply deserves to be. As a reviewer that spends a great deal of time looking for accurate evolution education resources, I give this book and accompanying resources two opposable thumbs way, way up!See also the accompanying Evolution Curriculum Packet (https://elizabethshreeve.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/OUT-OF-BLUE_CURRICULUM-Mar29reduced.pdf) and Quick Dip video series (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4TRDzoY69gBqJqrane6Rc4wK8YZfhYI_).