HOW LIFE BEGAN

Dramatic, oversized paintings and a brief text take the reader from the creation of the universe to modern Homo sapiens. This impressive-looking overview suffers somewhat from a lack of captions (e.g., several forms of ``early man `' are discussed but it's not indicated which is illustrated) and from oversimplification (Berger opens with ``The Big Bang'' as fact rather than as one of several theories). Dinosaurs are overemphasized and dramatically but conventionally portrayed; some readers may be confused by including non-dinosaurs in the ``dinosaur section'' without explanation. Still, a visually appealing introduction. Index. (Nonfiction. 8-10)