Amazing Animals: Rainforest Romp - Hardcover

This title in the new Amazing Animals series introduces very young children to the animals of a specific ecosystem with short rhyming stanzas and colorful cartoon illustrations. Rabbit, Mouse, and Bird take a tour of the rain forest, parting the tall grass and peering through binoculars at the various exotic critters they find there: armadillos, jaguars, anacondas, tree frogs, toucans, sloths, and howler monkeys. The rhythms of the text are a little shaky at times, but the rhymes can be quite clever and awfully amusing: “The giant armadillo has skin / like armored scales. / Whatever wants to munch it / just hurts its teeth and fails.” Parker’s simple but cheerful ink-and-watercolor scenes are composed with the animal being described as a focal point, but other denizens of the forest are scattered about the periphery, making this ripe for point-and-find workouts. This short and friendly offering is a terrific choice for gearing up for a zoo trip, or just for children to meet a few unusual new animals from the comfort of home. Preschool-Grade 1. --Ian Chipman