Inside the Amazing Amazon - Hardcover

Lessem, Don

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0517594900 ISBN 13: 9780517594902

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 1995

Synopsis

Beautifully illustrated with a three-page gatefold format to begin each section, a study of the Amazon rainforest comes alive with added keys and captions to identify more than seventy different species of plants and animals that make the ecosystem their home.

About this title

Reviews

Grade 4-7?This lush volume takes readers on a visual trek through the Amazon Basin. It's fun and flashy but doesn't convey the wealth in resources or the depth of the problems of this endangered environment. The area's native people, the loss of habitat due to exploitation, and the river itself are merely mentioned. The focus instead is the ecology of the rainforest. Oversized gatefold spreads depict the layers of the forest, each featuring Rothman's vivid, if somewhat static, paintings. Readers will be attracted to these pictures, which reflect the rich array of flora and fauna, but may be frustrated by the need to flip back and forth to the key and the introductory and follow-up pages for identification. Other illustrations accompanying interesting tidbits of information in the text are not drawn to scale. There is a brief glossary, a list of organizations, and a key to scientific names; but overall, this book does not amount to more than a browsing item. Fiona MacDonald's Rain Forest (Steck-Vaughn, 1994) is less attractive, but better organized; and for a real sense of the magnificence and importance of this ecosystem, look for Adrian Forsyth's Journey through a Tropical Jungle (S.&S., 1989).?Susan Oliver, Hillsborough County Science Library at MOSI, Tampa, FL
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 4^-6. This large-format book focuses on the distinct layers of the Amazon rain forest: the forest floor, the understory, the canopy, and the emergent layer. After the introduction, each chapter presents the characteristics of one horizontal habitat and describes some of the animals and plants that live there. The book's most striking sections are the three-page, fold-out paintings of life in each layer. After every fold-out picture are pages of text and smaller illustrations of individual species as well as clues to finding the featured plants and animals in the big pictures. Teeming with life, the detailed paintings make this a visually dramatic introduction to the rain forest. Carolyn Phelan

Edition details

• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0517594900
• ISBN 13: 9780517594902
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 500