Thinking Thursdays: Rainforest reads

Hello! I've just shared about two of our favourite books (hop over for the details) that we used to study the rainforests, and here are some more:

:: The Great Kapok Tree, by Lynne Cherry: A man is trying to chop down a great Kapok tree in the Amazon rainforest. He takes a rest, and falls alseep under the tree. As he naps, the animals whose lives are tied with the tree's plead with him not to destroy their world. Its a great book to introduce children to the idea of conservation, and how various living things depend on each other for survival.

:: Fernando's Gift, by Douglas Keister: Written in both English and Spanish, this is the story of Fernando, who lives in the rainforest in Coast Rica. Photographs help to bring you into his world, as he goes to school, goes fishing in the streams and walks about in the rainforest. It is his friend's Carmina's birthday, and they look for her favourite climbing tree, only to find that it has been cut down. And now he knows the perfect birthday present for his friend, a tree sapling. Junior J enjoyed looking at the photos and the book's underlying message of conservation.

:: Me... Jane, by Patrick McDonnell: I thought that it would be good to introduce Junior J to the lives of scientists, and of course, Jane Goodall came to mind. This lovely (and award-winning) book introduces Jane Goodall as a young girl, who has a toy chimpanzee named Jubilee. As young Jane reads the books about Tarzan of the Apes, she dreams of living in Africa and helping all animals... only to find that her dream really does come true. It's a beautifully illustrated book, and even includes drawings and puzzles created by Jane when she was young.

:: The Rainforest Grew All Around, by Susan Mitchell: This book was supposed to be an adaptation of the song "The Green Grass Grew All Around" (you can click here to hear Barney sing the song!), and introduces various animals and plants growing in the rainforest. (I must admit I got quite breathless trying to read this!) There are additional facts included in the sidebars of every page for children who want to know more about the various organisms.

:: We're Roaming in the Rainforest, by Laurie Krebs and Anne Wilson: This is a simple book which again, introduces children to some animals in the Amazon rainforest. What I liked was that they included a map to show the location of the rainforest in South America, plus two pages of details on the native tribes found there.

:: From Cocoa Bean to Chocolate, by Robin Nelson: Alright, this book wasn't really about the rainforest. However, because the boy did watch a video on rainforests that involved cocoa beans, I thought it would be good to include this book, which describes how chocolate is made from cocoa beans.

Do you have any favourite rainforest reads? Do leave a comment to share!