Tropical Rainforests by Seymour Simon

Spotlight on Non-Fiction

Tropical Rainforests by Seymour Simon

Do you know where an arapaima lives?  Or where to find a flying frog?  How about a pangolin?  If you read this book about rainforests, you’ll find out!  Let’s shine the spotlight on this informational book:

Summary

Simon’s book, Tropical Rainforests, is a beautiful photo essay packed with facts about rainforests.  He takes readers on a journey to the rainforest through his words and photographs.  He engages the readers’ senses from the very first page and maintains this all the way to the last page.  He shares general information about rainforests like their normal temperatures and where they are located.  He then breaks down the layers, or neighborhoods, of the rainforest.  He discusses the plants and animals native to each specific layer. 

Many of the animals featured in the book may be unfamiliar to the reader, like the arapaima (the largest freshwater fish in the world), the flying frog (with skin between its toes) and the pangolin (which looks like a pinecone when rolled up in a ball).  He closes the book with a reminder to the reader about the importance of rainforests and their threatened status.  Young children, adolescents and adults will enjoy the way the text is written.  The facts he presents on each page are easy to understand.  The photographs provide strong support for understanding the text. 

Discussion

Simon collaborated with the Smithsonian Institution to create this book.  Photo researchers provided the photographs included within the book.  A Science Interpreter from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute also contributed to the book.   A mission statement from the Smithsonian follows the title page and symbolizes a stamp of approval from this well-known institution.  They are a trusted source for accuracy.  The accuracy of the facts in the book is confirmed through the photographs as they capture the truth.  Simon includes websites on the last page to encourage readers to engage in further study about rainforests or other books he has written.

As discussed earlier, the book begins with general facts then expands in detail with facts about the layers of the rainforest.  Simon organizes his introduction of the features within the layers of the rainforest from the top to the bottom starting with the emergent layer, then the canopy and understory and concluding with the forest floor. 

Simon includes a Glossary of terms and an Index.  The Index includes page numbers in bold print, which signals the reader to a page with an illustration.  A Table of Contents may have aided his book.  The addition of captions may have helped signal the reader to what was in the photographs, although the text usually provided clarity.  Readers may also prefer for the Glossary terms to appear in italics or bold print within the text.  However, these nonfiction text features may have taken away from the photo essay style of the book.

The strength of this book is its highly visual quality.  The photographs draw the reader in and the easy to read style will keep them reading.   Readers may be so engaged in the book, they will leave wanting to read more from Simon.

Awards/Reviews

Seymour Simon has received many awards for his informational books like: American Association for the Advancement of Science/Subaru Lifetime Achievement Award, New York State Knickerbocker Award for Juvenile Literature, Hope S. Dean Memorial Award from the Boston Public Library, The Washington Post/Children’s Book Guild Award, Jeremiah Ludington Award, Empire State Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Forum on Children’s Science Books.

Here are samples of a few reviews:

“Simon's short overview has a familiar format: large pages of oversize text facing sharp color photos of trees, animals, and plants provide an inviting overview of the biome that is populated by the largest variety of plant and animal species on the planet, with many of them yet to be discovered.  Photo sources are identified, but there are no captions.  Simon's careful descriptions hold a great deal of appeal for young people.  He describes each of the rainforest's layers, along with some unusual plants, animals, and insects (e.g., bromeliads, sloths, pangolins, army ants) and explains that many medicines, oils, spices, fruits, and nuts are products of rainforest trees and plants.  He also notes that areas of rainforest are being lost as they are cleared for farming or mining.  This book is more focused and offers better descriptions than Darlene R. Stille's Tropical Rain Forests (Children's Press, 2000).  Nancy Smiler Levinson's Rain Forests (Holiday House, 2008) and Gail Gibbons's Nature's Green Umbrella (HarperCollins, 1994) are suitable for younger children, and Philip Johansson's The Tropical Rain Forest: A Web of Life (Enslow, 2004) is the choice for reports.” – School Library Journal

“Using Simon’s signature square format, large-print text, and excellent color photographs, this volume presents tropical rain forests.  Clear and beautifully reproduced, the photos are the book’s most striking feature.  The text provides a sound, basic introduction to tropical rain forests, their climate, their layered structure, and their vital importance to the world’s environment while stopping to look more closely at a few plants and many animals that live in there, such as army ants, piranhas, anacondas, frogs, parrots, bats, and sloths.  Although it would sometimes be helpful to have captions that would identify the animals and plants pictured or give a better sense of their size, the book’s clean design is attractive, and the photos are often eye-catching.  A glossary is appended. From a fine science writer, here’s an informative and visually rich introduction.” - Booklist

Teacher’s Tools

Students could engage in an author’s study and read other books from Seymour Simon.  

Students could present the facts learned within the book on a Tree Map.

Students could draw a diagram of a tropical rainforest, labeling the layers and noting the plants and animals found within each layer.  Students could also use butcher paper to create a tropical rainforest to be displayed within the classroom or in the hall.   They could draw the plants and animals native to each layer and label their work.

Students could engage in further research about a plant or animal native to the tropical rainforest.  Students could present their research to their classmates.

Students could discuss which nonfiction features they would add to the text to aid their reading.  Students could engage in a discussion about why these would be helpful and why Simon may have chosen not to include them.

Bibliographic Information

Simon, Seymour. 2010. Tropical Rainforests. New York: HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-06-114254-3.