Title: Monumental Monsters
Author: Vance Nelson
Series: Untold Secrets of Planet Earth
Major Themes: Fossils, Creation, Evolution
Synopsis: Amazingly huge creatures lived in the past—why did they die out?
A couple of years ago, my mother told me about a series of books titled Untold Secrets of Planet Earth by Vance Nelson. These books sounded so good that I decided to spend our homeschooling allowance on them that year. We bought the whole set and they have been very popular ever since with the whole family. Even those who don’t read enjoy these books. By far the favorite has been Monumental Monsters. I looked at the pictures a little bit when the book first arrived in our home, but never read it until these last few months. For the last few months, I have been reading a few pages a day as part of our morning homeschooling time. I found this book absolutely fascinating.
Vance Nelson’s premise, in writing this book, is that the earth and all its inhabitants were created perfect, but that what we see in the fossil record today is evidence of decline, decimation, and degradation. He has chosen giant fossils from around the world to illustrate his point, showcasing such creatures as giant bison found in North America, a giant snake from Columbia that would have weighed well over a ton, a 3-foot-long millipede from Germany, or a 440-pound lemur from Madagascar. For each of these creatures, he describes the varieties we see today, along with the giant that we find evidence of in the fossil record. For each animal, he shows a photograph of a piece of the fossil creature beside its counterpart from the living organism that we see today. He describes the differences between the living and fossil creatures, then points out, on almost every page, that these fossils do not show organisms evolving into something better, but rather degrading and deteriorating into something much more inferior. After a two-page spread describing the creature, with side-by-side photographs of the fossilized bones, there is a two-page spread with a color painting illustrating the reconstruction of the fossil creature beside its counterpart today, and a man wearing a knight’s armor for scale.
Monumental Monsters wraps up with an explanation for the extinction of these giant creatures which are found in fossilized form all over the world. The conclusion of the book presents a call to salvation from the Bible. Vance Nelson has chosen verses that describe the perfection in the beginning, man’s fall into sin and the subsequent curse on all life on earth, and God’s remedy, Jesus. This is a great book to have laying around for people to pick up and glance through. The topic is engaging and fascinating; my children, as I said before, love looking through this book and learning about the massive creatures that used to inhabit Earth. Along the way, they gain a greater appreciation for God, His creation, and a clear glimpse of what sin has done to the world.
No warnings!
Age levels:
Listening Level—Ages 8 – 12, 10 – 12
Reading Independently—Ages 15 and Above, Adults
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