Nature's Green Umbrella: Tropical Rain Forests

From School Library Journal Grade 1-4-A colorful, informative look at tropical rain forests. Gibbons has drawn and labeled about 50 animals and numerous plants and trees on double-spread illustrations. Complementary text appears in the margins. Each spread is bordered by vines and flowers reminiscent of medieval manuscripts. The striking watercolors evoke the mood of the forests, while the text contains simple definitions for italicized scientific terms. Readers are drawn into the ecology of rain forests before mention is made of the danger of global warming and the extinction of flora and fauna due to humanity's destructive invasion. Methods for protecting the areas, such as creating selective cutting or extractive reserves, are noted. Lyn Stone's Rain Forests (Rourke, 1989) and Jenny Wood's Rain Forests (Gareth Stevens, 1991), written for slightly older children, have striking full-color photos and more text, but Gibbons's book is more inviting.