Customer Reviews (1)

a classic work of history
A few years ago I read John Womack Jr.?s ?Zapata and the Mexican Revolution? which struck me as being the ultimate book on the subject.While Vansina?s PATHS IN THE RAINFORESTS bears little similarity to the former book, it does resemble it in one way:it must change the way people look at its subject, it is an earth-shaking work in tropical African history.As an interested, but non-specialist reader, I found PATHS IN THE RAINFORESTS extremely hard going, though the writing is clear.The volume of unfamiliar names of peoples, rivers, and other geographical features is overwhelming, despite the many excellent maps provided.Vansina backs up his arguments about political evolution in rainforest Africa with an enormous array of facts, Bantu linguistic transformations, and difficult kinship terminologies.The system of using semantic innovations and transformations over centuries to ?excavate? knowledge about economic and political changes in tropical African societies is extremely impressive, but must have been incredibly hard to do.Except for serious students of history or African history, the volume will not appeal to many.However, if you are a reader of challenging books, rather than those which take the ?easy path?, then you will find this particular path through the rainforests both rewarding and eye-opening.

After first contact with African cultures in the equatorial forest zone of central Africa, Westerners tended to regard them as 1) being cut from a single cloth, 2) unchanging. Albert Schweitzer?s view of Africans as sick, poor, primitive, and never-changing permeates Western thinking beyond academia. ?Tradition? meant that they had no history, but had lived the same way for thousands of years.As no written records existed, scholars tended to write central Africans off, saying that they were people ?without history?.Vansina shows, in a most scholarly way---mustering thousands of facts, using every possible technique except DNA research (which didn?t exist when he wrote)---that these presumptions are all products of ignorance and prejudice.New crops, new technologies, political and social innovations abounded.The first two chapters explore the rainforest environment and the original Bantu tradition, several millennia old.The following three chapters show how the tradition changed in separate regions of the equatorial forest region.The changes encompass an amazing variety of political innovation.Chapter Seven deals with the arrival of the Europeans on the Atlantic coast and the challenge that their slave trading and new material goods posed to the African societies of the time.The next chapter, most grim, describes the destruction of the African societies during the colonial period---wars conducted by colonial armies exterminated over half the population, while missionaries who scorned everything African tried to erase the culture of the survivors.The region?s suffering today stems from this history.The last section of the book discusses trends and patterns in history and tradition in general.While historians have often written as if the process of political development in the world, from tribe to empire, is known and set, Vansina questions that assumption.If major kingdoms appeared in the Kongo area, but did not elsewhere, should we regard their absence as a case of abnormal or arrested development ?Or should we presume that many roads are possible ?This and many other questions abound in this seminal book.I cannot imagine the amount of work and accumulated scholarship necessary to complete it.It is surely a masterpiece.

... Read more

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Photographs and simple text explore the unusual colors of birds, plants, and frogs in the Amazon rainforest. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Terrific Book
This is such a great little book for little people.It's so inviting because of the colors.And the simple repetitive text(just two words per page) paired with the pictures allows a 3 or 4 year old to "read" the book!What a confidence builder!My sons have adored this book.I recommend it to others with children who are learning to read....board book or paperback.And the bonus is that they get science exposure.Buy it!

Great book about colors!
I really like the vivid pictures and colors inside this book.I bought it for my 3-year old son who is always talking about the rainforest.He finds the pictures of the rainforest animals very interesting.I only wish there was more rainforest in the background of the pictures, so that my son can see the animals in relation to being in the midst of the rich, vast rainforest.Nevertheless, it is still a fun book and will also be very useful to introduce colors to younger children. ... Read more

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Based on an episode of the hit "Magic School Bus" TV show, this adventure takes the Friz and her class deep into the rain forest. The gang is on a quest to find out why Ms. Frizzle's cocoa tree has stopped growing cocoa beans. In addition to learning all about why trees become unhealthy, readers will learn all about life in a rain forest. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Wonderful Magic School Bus book
This is one of a series of Magic school bus books which features science facts, Mrs. Frizzle's class and beautiful illustrations. It is a great first or second grade independent reader or science book. The book came with water damage but that does not take away from it's value as the water damaged part is mostly on the front and back cover and not the inner pages. ... Read more

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Like Douglas Hofstadter’s Gödel, Escher, Bach, and David Berlinski’s A Tour of the Calculus, Euclid in the Rainforest combines the literary with the mathematical to explore logic—the one indispensable tool in man’s quest to understand the world. Underpinning both math and science, it is the foundation of every major advancement in knowledge since the time of the ancient Greeks. Through adventure stories and historical narratives populated with a rich and quirky cast of characters, Mazur artfully reveals the less-than-airtight nature of logic and the muddled relationship between math and the real world. Ultimately, Mazur argues, logical reasoning is not purely robotic. At its most basic level, it is a creative process guided by our intuitions and beliefs about the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Brought New Insights to an Old Science Reader
My only complaint is that I read the whole thing in only two days, as I couldn't put it down.Since the book cost $15.00, this comes to $7.50 per day.I was expecting a book on mathematics to take me at least a week, which would have been only $2.14 per day.Other than that, it was terrific.Mazur keeps a focus on really basic questions like, "what is truth, anyway." This sounds esoteric, but it leads to some excellent takeaway revelations.To put it another way, you don't merely learn some new facts about math, you have the opportunity to get a clearer understanding of science as well as mathematics.For instance, I had always thought of "junk science" as inferior to peer-reviewed science because their analytical processes - deduction, induction, inference, observation, etc. - were different from one another.Mazur forces you to look at a process known as "plausible reasoning" that is the hallmark of the very best peer-reviewed science, which leads to better understanding of the validity of scientific theories and laws.In my letter to the author, I told him that, "I have always been a sceptic, but now I know why I am a sceptic."I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a little sceptical - and all good scientists are a litte sceptical - about some modern scientific "discoveries." Thank you, Joe Mazur.

Dr. J. G. McCully.

Why Science isn't Faith Based
I found this remarkable little book in a 'bargain basket' at a bookstore in Panama City. I took it with me to Kuna Yala where I was staying in a Kuna village without electricity, running water, or much else. Thus I had a lot of very quiet time to read it. Parts of it were very difficult for me, but the overall message of the book is wonderful.

For some reason there are 'Post Modern' scholars (sic)(Stanley Fish of Florida International University is one) who want to reserect the old canard of 'science is merely faith' as a criticism of recent books on faith by scientists and others (Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens).

While this book does not directly address the issue of `faith vs. science', it is a explanation of the scientific method and the cleanest example of why science is not based on faith, does not require faith, and, in fact, can be demonstrated to be counter to faith based beliefs.

When I was an undergraduate in the late Pleistocene I took a philosophy course in which the instructor took the position that `Science,' `Religion,' and `Philosophy' were equally valid approaches to understanding reality. I didn't do well in the course because I kept objecting to his basic premise. While my training is in biology I have been trying to learn Particle Physics and Cosmology in recent years and am even more convinced that science is fundamentally divorced from other approaches.

Even if you are not going to a tropical island for a week, get this little book. You will probably enjoy it and will come away with a much better appreciation for how science works and how scientists think.

One of the best popular mathematics books I have ever read
Properly presented, the fundamental truths of mathematics are easy to understand. By that I mean that if they are presented in the appropriate non-technical language and with simple examples, then almost anyone can understand them. Mazur does this and does it very well. Much of the mathematics in this book is also philosophical in nature. A great deal of ink is spent in describing Zeno's famous paradox, "proving" that motion is impossible. His development of the solution to the paradox can be understood by anyone possessing the most rudimentary of mathematical backgrounds.
The role of proof in mathematics is also discussed, with questions raised as to what actually constitutes a proof. Mathematicians have debated this point since the Greeks invented the concept of the mathematical proof, and this is a good recapitulation of that debate. I consider it very healthy for the math profession to admit to the laity that mathematical proof is not necessarily fixed in concrete. It is also a point of significant honesty to admit that proofs that were considered correct for centuries contained flaws that were discovered and repaired.
There are three sections to the book:

*) Logic
*) Infinity
*) Reality.

The chapter "Does Math Really Reflect the Real World?" makes a point that often astounds mathematicians and others that work in the physical sciences. Namely, that mathematics does describe the real world, not only well, but often astonishingly well. New mathematical concepts are invented and considered to be purely abstract, there being no current practical application. However, as science progresses in other areas, that "purely abstract" idea suddenly has uses in the real world. Of course, the real world does have its flaws. It is impossible to create the perfect circle, the well-balanced coin and die do not exist and there are times when we cannot measure a value to enough decimal places to get true predictability. Those situations are also covered, which is important, as it points out that even the best mathematics does not give us absolute predictability. Fortunately, nearly all of the time, the good enough is in fact really good enough.
This is one of the best popular mathematics books that I have ever read; it covers the fundamentals that need to be covered and at a level that nearly everyone can understand.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission

Pleasure reading
This is a good book. You just read page after page without any brain-twisting theories. Facts and stories about math are lucidly presented. A soft way to teach truths about math and logic.

Dissapointing
The book does not deliver to the promise in its title.It is yet another "discover fun in mathematics" book, mixed with a poorly written travel account. ... Read more

Product Description
A Teacher’s Guide to A Walk in the Rainforest. Based on Pratt-Serafini’s picture book favorite for rain forest study, this guide includes lessons about habitat, interdependency of species, the rain forest water cycle, native peoples, oxygen generation, and much more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

very thorough resource
All of the Dawn teacher guides by the Malnors are superior resources. They are very well-organized and easy to follow. There are enough activities suggested to be very selective and still have more than enough material.Plus, what I love about these guides, is that all modes of learning areaddressed:for example, the body and the feelings as well as theintellect.My other favorites are the rainforests and ocean guides. ... Read more

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Product Description
Save the rainforest-not a question but a statement of fact. What good environmentalist would ever dispute it? Bruce Braun does; he goes so far as to ask, what is the rainforest? Who defines it? He examines the various practices-social, discursive and political-through which Canada's West Coast forests have been given meaning and made the site of intense political and ideological struggle. Departing from other work on environmental politics that assume the "forest" is a constant, The Intemperate Rainforest traces the way West Coast landscapes have been viewed and controlled by explorers, foresters, environmentalists, artists, scientists, adventure travelers, and Native peoples.

In 1993, dramatic political protests over logging in Clayoquot Sound in British Columbia propelled Canada's temperate rainforests onto the global stage. Celebrities and rock bands joined protests that, with over eight hundred arrests, were some of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history. Moving between these events and the histories and practices that produced these forest spaces, Braun reveals a complex postcolonial landscape in which a conventional politics of wilderness preservation is found lacking.

Bringing environmental studies into conversation with poststructuralist theory and postcolonial studies leads to a dynamic understanding of the forest as a historically contingent, politically charged object. Braun demonstrates how constructions of the forest are inextricably entangled with culture, race, nation, class, and colonialism in ways that trouble conventional approaches to nature and politics. Often portrayed as pristine landscape, he shows the forest to be an intensely cultural space inseparable from the primitivist fantasies, scientific discourses, and indigenous knowledges that constitute it. Displacing the language of wilderness, Braun proposes understanding the forest as a hybrid object that cannot be assigned to either "nature" or "culture" and also cannot be understood apart from the relations of power that infuse it.

Bruce Braun is assistant professor of geography at the University of Minnesota. He is the coeditor of Re-making Reality: Nature at the Millennium (1998) and Social Nature: Theory, Practice, and Politics (2001). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Provocative, fascinating
I taught this book in a senior seminar (4th-yr undergraduate) Environmental Anthropology course in 2003-04.I was a little worried about assigning it b/c the theory can be very dense, but it turned out to be one of the more popular books in the course, full of ideas that students kept referring back to and using in their term papers.Because each of the chapters looks at the idea of the "forest" (and the processes through which it has been produced) from a range of perspectives, it's a fun book to teach in a seminar setting -- it can be approached from a lot of different angles, and is almost inherently provocative of debate.And it has great illustrations -- all of my students were "fooled" by the pseudo-satellite photos that Braun presents and goes on to deconstruct brilliantly. ... Read more

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Tropical rainforests are disappearing due to agricultural intensification and climate change, causing irreversible losses in biodiversity and associated ecosystem functioning. Ecosystem properties and human well-being are profoundly influenced by environmental change, which is often not considered during land use intensification. Understanding these processes needs an integrated scientific approach linking ecological, economic and social perspectives at different scales, from the household and village level to landscapes and regions. The chapters in this book cover a broad range of topical research areas, from sustainable agroforestry management, climate change effects on rainforests and agroforests to integrated concepts of land use in tropical landscapes.

Product Description
In this award-winning environmental history of Cuba since the age of Columbus, Reinaldo Funes Monzote emphasizes the two processes that have had the most dramatic impact on the island's landscape: deforestation and sugar cultivation. During the first 300 years of Spanish settlement, sugar plantations arose primarily in areas where forests had been cleared by the royal navy, which maintained an interest in management and conservation for the shipbuilding industry. The sugar planters won a decisive victory in 1815, however, when they were allowed to clear extensive forests, without restriction, for cane fields and sugar production. This book is the first to consider Cuba's vital sugar industry through the lens of environmental history. Funes Monzote demonstrates how the industry that came to define Cuba&#151and upon which Cuba urgently depended--also devastated the ecology of the island.

The original Spanish-language edition of the book, published in Mexico in 2004, was awarded the UNESCO Book Prize for Caribbean Thought, Environmental Category. For this first English edition, the author has revised the text throughout and provided new material, including a glossary and a conclusion that summarizes important developments up to the present. ... Read more

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Chocolate milk, chocolate fudge, chocolate frosting on chocolate cake. Children love chocolate, and this book, filled with fun facts, introduces them to the flavor's exotic story. It begins in the rainforests of South America with the bitter seeds of a strange tree. The Aztecs served their human sacrifices chocolate mixed with blood. Conquistadors sent chocolate home to Spain where, sweetened with sugar, it became the rage among aristocrats. But not until 1847 was the first solid chocolate candy made, and only in the past century has the sacred treasure of ancient kings become the popular treat of millions.

Profusely illustrated and meticulously researched, Chocolate accompanies a major exhibition that travels from Chicago's Field Museum to 10 other sites. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Pure Mayan Gold
Chocolate: Riches from the Rainforest is one of the most attractive books I've come across in some while.This is far more than a picture book though.Chock full of chocolate history, kids of nearly any age will find this book enticing.

Very Educational and Enjoyable
I'd like to first point out that I gave this book 5 stars.Second...Amazon is selling this book at only $3.39 at this writing.This is a REALLY good deal and I'm going to buy the book.Now for my review:

I saw this book on display in the children's section of my local library.It has a very appealing cover to it and the word "Chocolate" written in it's title so...I HAD to check it out.

When I brought it home I thought it would be way to advanced for my 5 year old to be interested in but I wanted to read it myself. It is written for children maybe twice her age but she was VERY interested in the history of her favorite food and remained attentive to the whole book.

There were words and situations I had to give her a background on--such as what an African slave was/is.Unfortuneatly, slaves are still sometimes used in the production of chocolate to this day according to the author Robert Burleigh.

We loved the looks of this book...the lay-out, the yummy chocolate colors, photos, and illustrations are very eye appealing.

We now know a lot about the rainforest cacao (ca-COW) trees, the pods,the seeds and the complicated process that it goes through to become the chocolate we so love.Good thing we live in today's world.We also learned of chocolate's ancient infancy which at times was violent. Cacao was once only for royality and the very rich--not for 5 year old chocolate freaks like the one that lives in my home.We learned a lot and we loved this book!

A concise, yet thorough history of a wonderful food.
Most of us carry out an intense love affair with chocolate. To some, it is a fundamental part of our love affair with another human and to a few, it ignites the passion in their life. This book describes the history of chocolate, and like some foods, one wonders how it was first discovered. Until I read this book, I did not realize how chocolate is made. It is derived from the seeds inside the fruit of the tree and requires a great deal of processing before it reaches the form that we love. This was an interesting book to read, well illustrate it is a concise, yet thorough introduction to the history of one of my favorite foods.

Read this one with a Hershey bar!
Chocolate: Riches from the Rainforest tells the story of chocolate.The book begins by discussing where chocolate comes from and who discovered it.It goes on to describe how the ancient Maya and Aztecs drank chocolate regularly and offered it to their gods, and how the Spanish added sugar to chocolate to give it the sweet taste.The book also describes how chocolate making has changed over time and how it is made today.In addition, the book includes a glossary of terms used in the book and an author's note about some of the things he learned while writing the book.

I would recommend this book for ages 10 and 11.Children these ages will enjoy learning about the history of chocolate.I do not feel that this book would be appropriate for younger children due to the discussions of human sacrifices and slavery.I would recommend using this book during the summer as part of a fun segment on chocolate.Having chocolate available for the kids to eat would be ideal because it is difficult to get through this book without craving it. The book is filled with wonderful photographs and illustrations.These pictures add to the story by showing children the plant that chocolate comes from and some of the items that the Maya and Aztecs used to make and consume chocolate.There are also step-by-step photographs detailing how chocolate is made today. ... Read more

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Music and dance play a central role in the "healing arts" of the Senoi Temiar, a group of hunters and horticulturalists dwelling in the rainforest of peninsular Malaysia. As musicologist and anthropologist, Marina Roseman recorded and transcribed Temiar rituals, while as a member of the community she became a participant and even a patient during the course of her two-year stay. She shows how the sounds and gestures of music and dance acquire a potency that can transform thoughts, emotions, and bodies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Dreamsongs to bring the soul back home
This is both a superb work of scholarship and fieldwork, and a beautiful account of how dreaming can help us to find our way through the jungles of life, and to bring through healing - above all, the recovery of lost soulenergy. I hope it will find a much broader audience, because it is not onlybrilliant and scrupulous ethnography, but a treasure-trove of indigenouswisdom on healing body and spirit. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

great way to learn
This is a great way to learn all about the Amazon Rainforest in an interesting narrative. The importance of the rainforest is shown, without being preachy. Full of fascinating facts, this is a must for young readers who love stories. They won't know they're learning!!! It may just turn hesitant readers on to a fun way to learn.

I'll be buying more in this series. ... Read more

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What We Learned in the Rainforest teaches that nature isn’t just a source of resources for business —it is a powerful model for superior business performance in the emerging economy. The authors show that the old model of business—the machine model that pitted business against nature—is growing obsolete. In the emerging economy, businesses excel when they emulate what they once sought to conquer. They maximize performance as they become like nature, like a complex living system. By moving beyond the industrial machine model, and applying the dynamic principles of the rainforest instead, business can learn how to create more profit than ever, and to do so more sustainably. What We Learned in the Rainforest presents examples from leading companies —business strategies and management practices that maximize business performance by all measures: economic, social, and environmental. It shows, for instance, how Coca-Cola CEO Doug Daft uses diversity to drive sales, how Intel founder Gordon Moore creates profit by design, how Bill Coors builds businesses on the theory that “all waste is lost profit,” how Shell profits as an industrial ecosystem, and how Dow earns 300% returns.Amazon.com Review
Studying the environment to gain insight into organizational behavior can be a fascinating exercise, with advocates from Jane Jacobs to Margaret Wheatley among those who have helped us envision the inherent possibilities. What We Learned in the Rainforest takes a similar but uniquely focused approach, as Mitsubishi Electric CEO Tachi Kiuchi and environmental advocate Bill Shireman tie development and sustainment of the rainforest directly to progressive practices of businesses such as Hewlett-Packard, Coca-Cola, and Nike. Employing an interesting format--each section begins with the authors describing an ongoing parachute descent into the rainforest in order to illustrate a specific principle--Kiuchi and Shireman explain how concepts such as feedback, profit, design, and diversity aid both their natural laboratory and their corporate examples. In the "Succession" chapter, for instance, they relate a rainforest's "four phases of life" to the cycle of innovation, growth, improvement, and creative destruction that is experienced by successful businesses. With the goal of drawing on nature's wisdom rather than drawing down its physical resources, the book advances a vision of sustainability en route to profitability that is as provocative as it is potentially practical. --Howard Rothman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Rainforest?These Guys Leave No Rainforest Behind!
Well, as soon as our species can survive on information rather than calories, this book MIGHT be of some use.

In the meantime, I find it a questionable, if not pathetic, apologia for megalomaniacal outfits like Coca Cola.Coke is a leader among the pack of those who apparently share a neverending pseudo-quest to combine illusory humanitarianism ("Coca-Cola does a great service because it encourages people to take in more and more liquids") with an unquenchable thirst for global market dominance ("until, eventually, the number one beverage on Earth will be soft-drinks-our soft drinks").

Can we contemplate the notion that 'unlimited growth' and 'sustainability' just might be mutually exclusive?Look up Ecological Economics, my friends.I beg you.

Waste Neither Money Nor Time...
This title of this book is an alluring theme but the book is, upon reading, virtually worthless.The analogy between a natural ecosystem and an economic system is clear enough and certainly not an earthshaking discovery - the rhythms, cycles, feedback mechanisms, etc., of any dynamic system are obvious similarities.But try to draw too much parallel between a natural system and a man-made system will inevitably lead to meaningless conclusions.

The author proposes a theory and then cites real-world examples that conform to that theory, sometimes rather forcibly.One example:In a section on information, the author said that the Indian auto industry was protected by high tariffs and that it led to its stagnation and decline.The author claimed that it was because the industry "failed to encourage the use of information."Anyone with the slightest knowledge of free market knows that lack of competition was the real cause.Does the rainforest add anything?

At another point, the author pondered on how the eye was (or was not) the result of evolution, and after postulating that incremental evolution was not possible for certain very complex biological structures (such as the eye), he cites the new notions of "intelligent design" and "downward causation".High sounding names, but how do they come about now?? Well, intelligent design must be because evolution is not...As to downward causation, it is, as illustrated by the rainforest, a series of adaptation.Wow, I thought that was evolution.

There was also a lengthy tirade denouncing the Wintel platform's dominance "threatening the infospace."This was taken right out of the annals of the cyberspace sour grapes.

Finally, although the author tries to appear apolitical and centrist, his liberal bias was all too clear - from his dismissive comments about Dick Cheney to his proposal of (government?) setting rules on how software must be created to be modular, with open interface, etc., etc.Whew!

This book was recommended by a number of big name business people, whose businesses got a fair bit of free PR from this book.My recommendation: waste neither money nor time on this book.Do enjoy the rainforest, but learn your business skills by studying the free market instead.

Great primer on sustainable business principles
Bill Shireman and Tachi Kiuchi's book is an accessible, well written treatise on the economic and social power of applying natural principles to business. Unlike other books on industrial ecology, which can be heady and boring, Shireman and Kiuchi have broken down the natural cycles of the Rainforest into easily understandable principles and then provide brief case studies illustrating the application of those principles in a business setting. The book is a great primer on corporate sustainability.

Great sustainability primer
Bill Shireman and Tachi Kiuchi's book is an accessible, well written treatise on the economic and social power of applying natural principles to business. Unlike other books on industrial ecology, which can be heady and boring, Shireman and Kiuchi have broken down the natural cycles of the Rainforest into easily understandable principles and then provide brief case studies illustrating the application of those principles in a business setting. The book is a great primer on corporate sustainability.

I learned a lot from the Rainforest
The parallels in the authors' experiences with contemporary business issues are very compelling.This book offers a fresh perspective on some difficult issues, and can give managers a new way to think about their company's relationship to our world. ... Read more

Product Description
Enter the exotic world of lush and steamy rainforests. Fern acts as our guide, conquering her fear of heights and spiders to introduce the reader to the world's tallest trees, stinkiest plants and hairiest insects. Lots of horrible information, as well as a balanced look at ecological issues. ... Read more

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Do you see what I see? Who could be hiding behind that tree? Enter a lush rainforest and guess who is hiding behind the trees, bushes, and flowers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Cute book
The book is cute.I got it because she loves her rainforest activity mat.The book has all the animals from the activity mat.But she's 5 months old and too young to appreciate the book.I think she'll really like the book when she's older, so I will have to comment again then.

Rainforest Book
My son loves this book. I started reading it to him when he was about 6 months old. Now that is he one, he will bring the book to me so I can read it too him. And he will pull the tabs covering the animals. He gets so excited.

Great Book
Not too much to say. I am a Rainforest collector (well FP stuff that is). The book is colorful and a cute story. My kids love it and so do I. :)

Nice Little Book
Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
on 09/20/2008

This little book is very colorful with a bit of a puzzle feel. Children are asked to find an animal in the jungle, which is drawn in bright greens, oranges, yellows, and reds. The animals hide behind flaps. When they're found, the child sees an uncluttered picture, with a labeled, smaller picture on the reverse of the flap.

The flaps in this board book seem sturdier than average, but I am still concerned about small kids pulling them off. For flap books, I tend to recommend them for preschoolers rather than babies--although flaps often don't survive three years olds either!

Cute and educational, this is a nice little book for your child's library.

4.5 Books

LOVE THE RAINFOREST THEME
Our baby hasn't arrived yet and our theme is Fisher Price's Rainforest, so this is a great book!It contains all the characters from the rainforest theme and will be great to read to the baby as he or she gets older.A definate plus in the line of Rainforest!! ... Read more

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The rainforest is the richest wildlife habitat on earth, and "World of Wonder: Rainforest Animals" is an excellent introduction to the many fascinating creatures to be found there. In question-and-answer format, it addresses the questions that children are likely to ask: what does a jaguar eat? Can frogs live in trees? Do people live in rainforests? And, most importantly, will there always be rainforests? Marvellously detailed illustrations by Carolyn Scrace show creatures small and large, and give an idea of how they fit into this unique environment. Two spreads have been designed with an acetate overlay to show internal structures. There is a 'true or false' quiz that runs through the book, with answers given at the end, to make it truly interactive. The glossary and index encourage children to use the book as an educational resource. ... Read more

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Soothing nature sounds meet cutting-edge audio technology in this two-CD program that combines the peaceful sounds of the ocean and the rainforest with psychoacoustic audio technology that will lead listeners to a place of relaxation, healing, and inner peace. ... Read more

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Get ready ­ a spectacular adventure awaits you in the jungles of the Amazonian rainforest. Your journey begins now!RAINFOREST EXPLORER is packed with information about the world¹s most complex ecosystem. ... Read more