Children's book on evolution wins award

LONDON, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- An illustrated children's book with an evolution theme has won an award in Britain, and its author says it's an important topic for youngsters to learn.

"One Smart Fish," the story of a fish that yearns to walk, written and illustrated by Chris Wormell, received the United Kingdom Booktrust Early Years Award, The Daily Telegraph reported.

"We have got to stand up for evolution," Wormell said. "Lots of kids don't know about it, although there are quite a few who do, and when I do readings in schools a kid will always say, 'Are you telling me we all came from fish?' And it gets a great discussion going."

Wormell, 55, said he did not set out to write about evolution. He wanted to illustrate a book about fish "because they were one of my obsessions as a kid, when I collected fish in tanks."

"I had the idea of this very smart fish, and then I had the evolution idea -- that the one thing this fish wants to do more than anything is walk on the land," he said.