The second leg of the Robot Races take Jimmy and Maverick to the Amazon Rain Forest.

Jimmy and his robot, Maverick, were thrilled to qualify for Robot Races. After finishing second in the first race, they're out to win the next challenge, in the Amazon rainforest. But Jimmy's enemy Horace has other ideas.

Jimmy and Maverick compete in the Robot Race in the Arctic, where not everyone is playing fair.

Jimmy and Maverick much cross the Sahara Desert during this leg of the Robot Races.

The essays collected here offer important new reflections on the multiple images of and rhetoric surrounding the rain forest. The slogan “Save the Rain Forest!”—emblazoned on glossy posters of tall trees wreathed in vines and studded with monkeys and parrots—promotes the popular image of a marvelously wild and vulnerable rain forest. Although representations like these have fueled laudable rescue efforts, in many ways they have done more harm than good, as these essays show. Such icons tend to conceal both the biological variety of rain forests and the diversity of their human inhabitants. They also frequently obscure the specific local and global interactions that are as much a part of today’s rain forests as are the array of plants and animals. In attending to these complexities, this volume focuses on specific portrayals of rain forests and the consequences of these characterizations for both forest inhabitants and outsiders. From diverse disciplines—history, archaeology, sociology, literature, law, and cultural anthropology—the contributors provide case studies from Latin America, Asia, and Africa. They point the way toward a search for a rain forest that is both a natural entity and a social history, an inhabited place and a shifting set of ideas. The essayists demonstrate how the single image of a wild and yet fragile forest became fixed in the popular mind in the late twentieth century, thereby influencing the policies of corporations, environmental groups, and governments. Such simplistic conceptions, In Search of the Rain Forest shows, might lead companies to tout their “green” technologies even as they try to downplay the dissenting voices of native populations. Or they might cause a government to create a tiger reserve that displaces peaceful peasants while opening the doors to poachers and bandits. By encouraging a nuanced understanding of distinctive, constantly evolving forests with different social and natural histories, this volume provides an important impetus for protection efforts that take into account the rain forest in all of its complexity. Contributors. Scott Fedick, Alex Greene, Paul Greenough, Nancy Peluso, Suzana Sawyer, Candace Slater, Charles Zerner

Prowl through the undergrowth and meet the amazing creatures that lurk there. Favorite animals such as tigers, snakes, and chimpanzees rub shoulders with marmosets, katydids, and sloths, and every animal is shown in its correct layer of the forest. A wealth of facts, combined with dramatic photography, ensures that Eye Wonders are the perfect educational start for young children. Eye Wonder is a groundbreaking reference series specially developed for younger children aged five plus. In a stunning style departure for DK, wonderful photography shows subjects within their natural setting, offering a whole new level of information through powerful images. Vocabulary is accessible to children aged five and up, with the meanings of new, subject-related words clearly explained. The series provides an excellent knowledge base on the natural world for children starting to learn. The combination of breathtaking visuals and informative, accurate text will hook even those children who usually avoid books. Open your eyes to a world of discovery.

An in-depth look at the sprawling trees and dense undergrowth of the ecosystem of the rainforest, Eye Wonder: Rainforest welcomes young readers into the world of tigers, snakes, and chimpanzees, as well as marmosets, katydids, sloths, and more. A precursor to DK's awarding-winning Eyewitness series, Eye Wonder was specially developed for children aged five plus, featuring astonishing photography exhibiting subjects within their natural setting, offering a whole new level of information through powerful images. Each title in the series now contains educational activities including true and false questions, quizzes, matching games, and mazes. Vocabulary is accessible to young readers, with the meanings of new, subject-related words clearly explained. The combination of visuals and informative, accurate text will hook even those children who usually avoid books.