The Evolution of Katherine Lasky’s One Beetle Too Many

The Evolution of Katherine Lasky's One Beetle Too Many

The work on One Beetle Too Many (Candlewick, 2009) began more than 24 years ago, according to author Kathryn Lasky. "It's amazing that I haven't evolved into another creature," the author states, referring to the process of bringing her picture-book biography of Charles Darwin to fruition. In this title Lasky takes a complex theory—the theory of natural selection—and a complicated man, and makes both accessible to young readers. In many ways, the book's seeds were planted while she was working on her very first title, Traces of Life: The Origins of Humankind (Morrow, 1989), illustrated by Whitney Powell. But the release of Beetle in 2009 was perfectly timed, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's On The Origin of Species. Here Lasky discusses her career-long fascination with the naturalist.

Can you talk a bit about how this project evolved, if you'll forgive a pun?

When my daughter was two years old, I thought, "I've got to get out of the house." I live in Cambridge, right near Harvard. I hired a babysitter, and started auditing Steven Jay Gould's course, "The History of the Earth," and David Pilbeam's class on human evolution. The first book I wrote was Traces of Life, about human evolution. In some ways it was easier than thinking about Charles Darwin and trying to squish his whole life into a book. more » » »