How the Borks Became
An Adventure in Evolution
Age 5+
Picture Storybooks
A gentle and humorous way of introducing the concept of evolution to young children.
Borks live on a planet quite like our own Earth. They have shaggy yellow fur and long thin necks. But once they had short blue fur and almost no necks at all.
How could this happen? Well, it didn't come about all at once ...
Jonathan Emmett tells a delightful story in verse about the Borks and all the things that happened to make them gradually look quite different, while still remaining Borks. And by the end of the story, the reader will have a very good notion of how Evolution by natural selection works.
Creators
Jonathan Emmett’s books have been translated into 30 languages and have won fifteen awards in Britain and the USA. He trained and worked as an architect but left the profession to become a stay-at-home dad and pursue a career as an author and paper engineer. His first book Doohickey and the Robot, was published in 1999 and he has since written over 60 more books for children. Jonathan names Dr Seuss, Maurice Sendak and Roald Dahl as great childhood influences on his writing. When he’s not writing or paper-engineering, Jonathan likes to design and make furniture. He lives in Nottingham.
Elys Dolan is rapidly becoming a big name as one of the finest humorous illustrators around. An author as well as an artist, she grew up in Sussex, went to Cambridge School of Art, and lives in Cambridge. Her own books include Weasels and Nuts in Space, and she has also illustrated Jonathan Emmett’s The Clockwork Dragon (2015).
Reviews
Evolution can be a difficult concept to explain to children, but this amusing picture book presents it beautifully. Reminiscent of Dr Seuss books, it’s a fantastically funny tale with wonderfully vibrant illustrations.
Book Trust, Books we Love
