Older Than Dirt

by Don Brown & Professor Mike Perfit

Almost 14.5 billion years ago, it all started with a BIG BANG and what began as a cloud of gas, dust, and rock eventually took shape and bloomed into a molten sphere. Battered by asteroid collisions, ice ages, and shifting tectonic plates, our fledgling planet finally pushed forth continents. But if you think the earth has calmed down since then—think again! Geological activity continues to sculpt the earth’s landscape, sometimes with terrible consequences for its inhabitants: earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis.

In this one-of-a-kind, wild, but true history of Earth, the Sibert Honor medalist Don Brown takes on big concepts with humor and ease.

Don Brown is the award-winning author and illustrator of many picture book biographies. He has been widely praised for his resonant storytelling and his delicate watercolor paintings that evoke the excitement, humor, pain, and joy of lives lived with passion. School Library Journal has called him “a current pacesetter who has put the finishing touches on the standards for storyographies.”
Dr. Michael Perfit is Professor and Chair of Geological Sciences at the University of Florida where he has worked since 1982. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed technical papers and articles in professional scientific publications and has been a principal investigator on numerous research grants from the National Science Foundation and NOAA. He has participated on over 20 oceanographic research cruises and served as co-chief scientist on several more. While at the University of Florida he has received several awards for excellence in teaching at the University of Florida and was the Flint Term Professor in 1999-2000. He has also enjoyed adjunct academic appointments at the Australian National University, Cornell University, University of Tasmania, and the Institut du Physique du Globe, Paris.

Editorial Reviews

★ “In one hundred fact-crammed but surprisingly zippy pages, nonfiction graphic novelist extraordinaire Brown covers fourteen billion years of Earth’s development. From the Big Bang to our planet’s origin to land mass formation to the appearance of life, Brown and scientific consultant Perfit provide an astonishingly comprehensive overview and manage to humanize it with witty asides from the woodchuck and worm who serve as surrogate teacher and student, as well as quick visits with important historical scientists.” —Booklist, starred review

In the tradition of Larry Gonick’s The Cartoon History of the Universe, Brown (Drowned City) and geologist Perfit craft a simultaneously irreverent and informative comic that examines how Earth came to be. This grand tour of the planet is hosted by an affable and well-informed groundhog who introduces significant moments, key theories, and scientists, accompanied by an earthworm, who lobs easy questions and provides comic relief. “Radiation from the sun! Where’s my umbrella?” gasps the worm. “You already have one,” replies the groundhog. “It’s called the ozone layer.” Brown strips down unnecessary backgrounds and eliminates extraneous details to focus on exactly what needs to be depicted; one three-panel sequence, for example, follows India’s collision with Asia that created the Himalayas. Brown and Perfit recount Earth’s history mostly through dialogue, except during mini-biographies that explore the discoveries of specific scientists, such as Alfred Wegener, who first proposed the theory of continental drift. The groundhog and worm’s repartee results in a witty history of the planet that packs a remarkable amount of information into an engaging format. Ages 10–12.

Publishers Weekly

“The groundhog and worm’s repartee results in a witty history of the planet that packs a remarkable amount of information into an engaging format.”
—Publishers Weekly

“The groundhog is utterly endearing, and the worm is remarkably expressive considering the absence of limbs and most facial features. Readers will be entertained, informed, and inspired to learn more. . . A guaranteed hit with science lovers and a best bet for convincing skeptics that science is indeed a grand and exciting adventure.” —Kirkus

A groundhog and her worm sidekick offer a concise tour of the Earth’s history from the Big Bang to climate change with a glimpse of the bleak, sun-dried future to come—all lightened by frequent humorous asides. Born of the partnership between geology professor Perfit (Univ. of Florida) and prolific graphic novelist Brown, this highly engaging overview briefly introduces a broad range of scientific topics in a vivid and accessible way, for example describing magma as “rock that is so hot that it’s gooey, like chocolate fudge.” Clear illustrations effectively complement the text, rendering the array of subjects memorable and easy to grasp: a cross section of an apple indicates the relative thinness of the Earth’s basalt crust, while a plaid blanket hovering above the planet illustrates the effect on temperatures of excessive carbon dioxide. The groundhog is utterly endearing, and the worm is remarkably expressive considering the absence of limbs and most facial features. Readers will be entertained, informed, and inspired to learn more about whatever piques their curiosity, whether it is uranium, continental drift, glaciers, or one of the featured scientists, such as Marie Tharp. A lengthy bibliography and detailed source notes are an added bonus. A guaranteed hit with science lovers and a best bet for convincing skeptics that science is indeed a grand and exciting adventure. (Graphic nonfiction. 9-14)

Kirkus Reviews