A dizzying ride through 4.6 billion years of life on Earth, this is the creation story of our planet as told by science.

Once upon a time, before time even existed, all matter in the universe was concentrated in a single point a fraction of the size of an atom. And then? And then it exploded.

This is a celebration of the origins of our planet and the life that inhabits it. With lyrical text and sumptuous illustration, this book takes readers on an extraordinary evolutionary journey; from the emergence of photosynthesising single-celled organisms to the blobby sea creatures that gradually morphed into fish and then tetrapods, reptiles, dinosaurs and finally to mammals.

We tell stories of apples and snakes, of gods and monsters. But the creation story told by science is more perplexing and incredible than any we could ever make up.

Written by the award-winning Ziggy Hanaor, and gorgeously brought to life by Cristóbal Schmal, this striking book is both emotive and educational.

Ziggy Hanaor is a writer and publisher living in London. She is author of the V&A award-winning Alte Zachen (Cicada, 2022) and the Carnegie-nominated The Egg Incident (2023), as well as picturebooks including Fly Flies (2019), Alex and Alex (2021) and The Pocket Chaotic (2020) - all Cicada.

Polya Plavinskaia is a London-based illustrator and art director. She has designed and illustrated books for publishers including Samokat, Quarto and Bloomsbury. She was a 2023 winner of the Bologna Bookfair Illustrators’ Exhibition.

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