With their new book We Go Way Back, Idan Ben-Barak and Philip Bunting team up to explain to kids what life is. It’s a pretty huge concept to put in a picture book. Especially since there currently doesn’t seem to be consensus regarding the exact definition of what life is, which the authors thoroughly and humorously acknowledge on page five – is it energy? Animation? A force?

Still, Ben-Barak and Bunting have a good go at talking about life and how we got it on Earth (another thing no one knows for sure), using casual yet accurate language, clear illustrations and lots of jokes. By the end of the book, with the help of a three-page fold-out, you can see the lovely, chaotic family tree that traces Life on Earth, starting from the clever ‘bubble’ that duplicated itself a little bit differently and ending with… well, all living things!

We Go Way Back is a great book for all kids ages 3 and up, but especially for those curious minds who are always asking ‘but why?’

Dani Solomon is the assistant manager at Readings Kids.