Unstoppable Us, Volume 1

September 23, 2022
Grades 5-7 Starting with the (debatable) premise that "we rule the world," Harari opens a projected four-volume history of humanity with one basic principle: that Homo sapiens, began as just another animal, but eliminated competition because we learned to tell ourselves stories. These beliefs not only unified our worldviews, which made it possible to cooperate in large groups, but, unlike physical evolution, could be rapidly altered, adapting to changing conditions. As nearly all of this happened in prehistoric times, Harari freely admits that the evidence is speculative, but as he describes the spread of "sapiens" in a lively, engaging way, he brings in suggestive fossil evidence and explains his reasoning clearly. He doesn't ignore the genocidal elements but he does go light on them, and Ruiz follows suit with mostly nonviolent scenes in which animated, dark-skinned prehistoric folk clad in animal skins alternate with similarly posed figures in modern dress. The author closes with a claim that just as we made today's world, we can also change it--a theme likely to recur in future episodes. Provocative reading.

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November 1, 2022

Gr 4-7-A philosophical take on the history of hominids, covering the evolution of the genus homo from their shared roots with other hominids to the modern homo sapiens. Harari discusses many theories of what makes humans unique in the animal world, placing the most emphasis on the theory expressed in his previous works; humans are unique because their ability to tell stories enables us to work collaboratively in ways other animals do not. Much emphasis is placed on humans being the cause of mass extinction events of creatures, such as the mammoths and other megafauna, ending with a call to action for young readers to take better care of the planet and its nonhuman inhabitants. Science facts, anthropological theory, and Harari's own philosophy are mixed in this text with little delineation to help readers differentiate. Theories that are still hotly debated in the anthropology field are often presented as fact, and some facts may be misrepresented. For example, when explaining why Latin is used in scientific names, Harari writes that, "Latin sounds almost like magic," and Latin is chosen because it sounds more important. This is not the commonly held explanation, and simplifying for a young audience should not mean misrepresenting facts. Harari's statement as fact that the development of religious belief is a result of the intrinsic storytelling nature of humans may be a collection development concern, especially in communities with devout families. VERDICT Not recommended due to its potential misrepresentation of philosophies as scientific fact.-Jeri Murphy

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Starred review from December 15, 2022
From the author of the adult title Sapiens (2015), an explanation of how physically weak humans came to dominate other animals. Spoiler alert: It was through human inventiveness and storytelling. Harari's lively, reader-directed prose and Ruiz's expressive graphics will help young readers grasp an almost-unimaginably distant past, from the start of toolmaking up to (in this volume) Homo sapiens' collaborative extinction of mammoths. The text is dramatically punctuated by large and small illustrations. Ingenious use of perspective, imaginative details, and relevance to the text make the artwork integral to this book's appeal. Most of the illustrations depict cheerful, brown-skinned humans. Bolded sentences in different colors break up text blocks and point to big ideas and questions. Humor is effectively deployed, and concepts like evolution, DNA, and religion are compared to kid-adjacent phenomena (to help kids grapple with the idea of human cooperation, for instance, the author asks readers to imagine all the people, from students to teachers to cafeteria workers to the people who create textbooks, who make a school possible), connected to the next topic, and paced to appeal to middle-grade readers. When an answer isn't known, Harari admits, "We don't know." An enticingly depicted intro to human history and archaeology, simply expressed but extensive and engaging. (timeline, map, resources, index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)

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