Rainforest

Gr 3-6-The attention-grabbing orange bill of the Toco Toucan splashes across the cover of this introduction to life in the rain forest. Inside the book, the color palette softens and the artwork contains the textured look of woodblock illustrations. Lyrical sentence fragments introduce animals, birds, and insects in their forest setting. Such memorable lines as "tiny foragers transport their treasure" (describing a column of leafcutter ants) give life to their toils. Quiet scarlet ibises are reflected standing in shallow water, and open-mouthed howler monkeys' voices seem to echo off the pages. The background colors change with each spread-outsize green leaves frame a stalking jaguar and black bats swoop on a purple-paged twilight. The last two pages offer identification and brief description of the six mammals, four reptiles, three birds, one fish, and one insect. VERDICT A lovely book for reading aloud or just leafing through. A fine addition to robust nonfiction collections.-Frances E. Millhouser, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Crisp, blocky illustrations accompany short, evocative text describing fifteen Amazon animals (identified at book's end), from leafcutter ants to a jaguar. In full-page spreads, the animals are presented starkly against bold, simple-colored backdrops and alongside poetic phrases emphasizing their wildness and capturing the quiet mystery of the rainforest (jaguar: "Slowly stalking, majestic and silent"). Back matter provides scientific information on each creature. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.