Children will delight in discovering the many plants and animals who call the rain forest home in a clever adaptation of the song The Green Grass Grows All Around.

In recent years, tropical forests have received more attention and have been the subject of greater environmental concern than any other kind of vegetation. There is an increasing public awareness of the importance of these forests, not only as a diminishing source of countless products used by mankind, nor for their effects on soil stabilization and climate, but as unrivalled sources of what today we call biodiversity. Threats to the continued existence of the forests represent threats to tens of thousands of species of organisms, both plants and animals. It is all the more surprising, therefore, that there have been no major scientific accounts published in recent years since the classic handbook by Paul W. Richards, The Tropical Rain Forest in 1952. Some excellent popular accounts of tropical rain forests have been published including Paul Richard's The Life of the Jungle, and Catherine Caulfield's In the Rainforest and Jungles, edited by Edward Ayensu. There have been numerous, often conflicting, assessments of the rate of conversion of tropical forests to other uses and explanations of the underlying causes, and in 1978 UNESCO/UNEPI FAO published a massive report, The Tropical Rain Forest, which, although full of useful information, is highly selective and does not fully survey the enormous diversity of the forests.

An immersive, high-interest approach to the highly curricular topic of biomes

From a young writer quickly becoming the quintessential foreign correspondent for a new generation, comes the compelling, tragicomic account of the centuries old quest for gold in South America.

In early 2007, Loic Pillois and Guilhem Nayral went on a 60-mile hike in the Amazon rain forest in French Guiana. Despite having a map and a compass, the two friends became hopelessly lost. They built fires, hoping to attract the attention of planes passing overhead, but their efforts didn't work. For weeks Loic and Guilhem survived by eating frogs, centipedes, turtles, and bird-eating spiders. Would the two men be able to find their way back to civilization before they died of starvation, dehydration, or an animal attack? Lost in a Rain Forest is a heart-stopping collection of true stories that dramatically describe what it's like to be lost and forced to survive in a rain forest. Captivating, first-person accounts of survivors include newlyweds lost in a Costa Rican jungle and a young woman who wandered through the Peruvian rain forest after surviving a plane crash. The book also includes general information about the world's rain forests and the incredible plants and animals that inhabit them. Large color photos, maps, and fact boxes enrich the exciting survival tales. Written in a narrative format, this book is sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Text and pop-up illustrations depict the rich variety of plant and animal life found in a tropical rain forest.

Today is doomsday for a young Venezuelan Indian boy's beloved rain forest and its animal life—unless he and a visiting naturalist can save it. "George makes drama large and small out of the minute-by-minute events in an ecosystem . . . gripping ecological theater." —C. "An example of nonfiction writing at its best." —SLJ. Notable 1990 Children's Trade Books in Social Studies (NCSS/CBC) Outstanding Science Trade Books for Children 1990 (NSTA/CBC)