The Rainforest Grew All Around

by Susan K Mitchell (Author) Connie McLennan (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade
Imaginations will soar from the forest floor, up through the canopy and back down again, following the circle of life in this clever adaptation of the song "The Green Grass Grew All Around." The jungle comes alive as children learn about a wide variety of the animals (jaguars, emerald tree boas, leafcutter ants, sloths, poison dart frogs, toucans, and bats) and plants (kapok trees, liana vines, and bromeliads) living in the lush Amazon rainforest. Delve even deeper into the jungle using sidebars and the three-page "For Creative Minds" educational section.
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School Library Journal

Gr 2-4 This lively introduction to plants and animals of the Amazon rainforest is organized around the towering kapok tree. Readers meet a jaguar, a green boa, leafcutter ants, a sloth, and other creatures that live in its branches. The cumulative verse draws them together while the "rainforest grew all around, all around; the rainforest grew all around." Text panels on the sides of the well-laid-out pages offer facts about the plants and animals depicted close up, such as, "Pineapples are bromeliads that grow in the ground." Although the color illustrations resemble those of Lynne Cherry's in "The Great Kapok Tree" (Harcourt, 1990), this book is less message heavy. Two pages of activities plus a recipe for rainforest cookies provide opportunities to extend learning, but there is no musical score. Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Copyright 2007 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

Teachers looking for a rainforest book that invites participation will want to sing this one aloud, as they share the striking illustrations with their classes. - Booklist
Susan K Mitchell
Award-winning illustrator Connie McLennan has been a freelance artist for over 25 years, since attending Academy of Art College in San Francisco. In addition to illustrating Ready, Set...Wait! (Fall 2010), she has also illustrated Mother Osprey: Nursery Rhymes for Buoys & Gulls, The Rainforest Grew All Around, River Beds: Sleeping in the World's Rivers, Water Beds: Sleeping in the Ocean, and Octavia and her Purple Ink Cloud for Arbordale Publishing. Her studio is at her home in California, where she lives with her husband, teenage son, and one big, black cat. Visit Connie's website: http: //www.conniemclennan.com/
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780977742387
Lexile Measure
820
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Arbordale Publishing
Publication date
April 01, 2007
Series
-
BISAC categories
NON000000 - Non-Classifiable | Non-Classifiable
Library of Congress categories
Rain forests
Black-Eyed Susan Award
Nominee 2009 - 2010
Volunteer State Book Awards
Nominee 2009 - 2010
Young Hoosier Book Award
Nominee 2011 - 2011

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