Finding Life: A Prehistoric Search and Find

FINDING LIFE is an engaging search-and-find picture that takes a walk through history. Each page features a different time period along with a detailed and busy image. The page spreads include a couple paragraphs about that time period along with a few things to find among the larger picture.

What I loved: This ends up being a really educational book, great for children who love to learn about Earth's history and creatures of the past. The brief text on each page spread helps to set the stage and teach a little as children enjoy the search-and-find activity.

The illustrations are well-thought-out, detailed and were crafted to display many of the creatures and plants thought to live during each time period. There is also a great many time periods chosen, so there are a lot of search-and-find activities!

What left me wanting more: While this is targeted to older readers, this may be a bit too easy for them in terms of the search-and-find task. The images are really easy to find in the larger picture with a low level of difficulty. This may work best for young elementary school readers who can enjoy the ease of finding along with the educational material.

Final verdict: FINDING LIFE is an engaging and educational search-and-find with thoughtful, detailed images and plenty to learn about prehistoric time periods.

A search and find book, FINDING LIFE has children actively searching to find the different types of life that existed throughout time. Starting at the Cambrian Period and leading up to today, children will seek out the many organisms that have called Earth home over the years.

While this book is primarily a search and find, it does have educational information in it as well. Each period has two or three paragraphs explaining what life was like during that time and how flora and fauna survived and adapted. There’s also a glossary at the back that gives very brief descriptions of each creature you just found. The information is a bit higher-level than what would be expected from a search and find book. Younger kids will enjoy the searching, but older kids will get the full experience of searching and learning.

The illustrations in this book are unique. Roughly drawn with overlapping lines and colors that extend past the drawings. But it works well with this type of book. Some creatures stand out a bit more, while others blend in with the mess of colors around them. It’s also really interesting to see what the different periods are hypothesized to have looked like.

Have you ever tried to find an Edaphosaurus during the Carboniferous Period? Or a Dart Frog during the Holocene Epoch? FINDING LIFE lets you do all that and more. With a glossary at the back and brief summaries of the different periods, children interested in prehistoric creatures will have a fun time with this book. Mixing together play and education, it provides children with the best of both worlds.