Jane Yolen invites children to a tropical rainforest that is a hot house, a wet house, a bright house, a loud house. It has trees for walls, a canopy of leaves for a roof, and is home to many exotic and colorful animals. The lyrical text and Regan's brilliant closeup paintings of creatures and plant life draw readers in until they can almost smell the earth and feel the moist heat.
Here is the mysterious world of the tropical rainforest, brought to life in skillfully chosen words and rich, evocative pictures. This is a house where giant forest trees form the walls, and vines frame the views, and there is no roof overhead, only a canopy of leaves. Everywhere color threads through the hot green house. By day you can hear exotic noises, and even at night the green house is full of sounds and shapes. Written by Jane Yolen. This was Laura Regan’s picture book debut.
Excerpt
With the a-hoo, a-hoo, a-hoo
of the howler troop
welcoming the dawn;
with the crinch-crunch’of long-horned beetles
chewing through wood;
with the pick-buzz-hum-buzz
of a thousand thousand bees
droning over flowers;….
From Joanne Schott - Quill & Quire
Yolen's brief, poetic, simple text . . . is descriptive and full of movement. . . . The pictures, in Regan's debut as a children's illustrator, earn more than equal billing. Her accurately-detailed, softly-outlined paintings present a panorama of the jungle's life. . . . Dappled light and shadow and the green of leaves and moss, layered on layer in a seemingly infinite jungle, create the image of a place with a special reality. The beauty and wonderful variety of the rainforest is the book's only message, being reasons in themselves to know that this space must be preserved.
Children's Literature Review:
Lavishly illustrated with full-spread images of the rain forest, this small publication provides a lot of information for young children about the animal life in the rain forest. Intricate pictures of a wide range of animals and insects tell a story of abundant life in this "house." Blue hummingbirds, golden toads, lizards, silver fish, numerous kinds of monkeys and birds decorate these pages with brief text explaining who they all are, and the sounds that they make. The last page includes a statement about how rain forests are being destroyed, with an address for additional information. The illustrations are very impressive and invite continuing examination and discussion. Reviewed by Kristin Harris.
Colorful interactive book for teaching children the ABC's using God’s creation of the animal kingdom and featuring some of His most exotic creature. More importantly the book segues into the very special love God has for children.
