The Greatest Show on Earth - A Review

The Greatest Show on Earth

 

Written & illustrated by Mini Grey

Published by Penguin Random House Children’s, UK, 2022

 

I wanted to tell the whole 4.6 billion years roller-coaster ride story of life on Earth in one book, so my readers could see ALL of this amazing and incredible story. 

 

So writes Mini Grey, winner of the Kate Greenaway medal, when introducing her first non-fiction book for children on her website and she does so with such great humour, heart and honesty. It’s a lively celebration of this unique world of ours that doesn’t shy away from the truth regarding the profound impact humans have had in such a short space of time and the likelihood of a future world without us. 

 

It’s absolutely right that the story is told by Rod, a cockroach, and his Troupe of insects in the world-famous Shoebox Theatre on a monstrous mountain of rubbish sometime in the future, when humans are no more and a slow re-wilding of the trashed planet is taking place. Rod’s tale is one of deep time, about the shifts of the continents, the to-and-fro of the polar ice caps, the rise and fall of the oceans, and the incredible evolution of life on Earth. There are so many nice touches in this book. One that struck me early on was when the Troupe introduced itself in a variety of languages, which is a wonderful acknowledgement and reflection of the modern diverse classroom.

 

But that’s just the start. Grey makes the scientifically challenging inventively accessible. The creation of the Earth 4.6 billion years ago told as a fun recipe? You’ve got it. The arrival of microbes 3 billion years ago or molecules that made themselves ‘a jacket to live in’? Right here. The explosion of new life forms in the Cambrian Explosion, 541 million years ago, and the invention of mouths and ‘bum ends’ illustrated in a hilarious cartoon form. Of course! In fact, the depth Grey goes into is mind boggling considering this is a 47-page text. It’s the most ambitious, informative, generous and yet accessible non-fiction text for children about the Earth and natural sciences I’ve read to date. When I stop to consider the amount of research that’s gone into it, my heart starts racing.

 

First and foremost, I would recommend this book for children in KS2 as the content aligns more clearly with the curriculum for Years 3 to 6, especially with regards to Science, but KS1 classes and teachers will get a great deal out of it also, not least because of the clear and simple explanations and the cracking glossary at the end which covers the more challenging words in the text. As Rod the Roach tells us, ‘the story of Life on Earth will go on.’ Children and adults who read this book will have a well-informed idea of what that life will look like and where it’s come from.

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