Nature's Green Umbrella Book

Green leaves, wet leaves.
The air is hot and steamy.
Everything is moist.

This is a tropical rain forest. As much as 240inches of rain may fall here in a single year! Beneath the treetop canopy, the rain forest bursts with plant and animal life. Periwinkles and lianes, tree frogs and spider monkeys abound.

In Nature's Green Umbrella, lushly illustrated introduction to one of the world's most complicated ecosystems. For only if we know how important rain forests are to the whole world will we truly understand the need to protect them.

Author Biography:

Gail Gibbons, "a master of children's non-fiction" (ALA Booklist), has created over one hundred entertaining, eye-catching books that explain how things work. She lives in Corinth, Vermont. In Her Own Words...

"I was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1944. Even as a little child, I was always busy putting books together. Sometimes I would bind them with yarn to hold the pages together I've always loved drawing and painting. I was also a very curious child. My parents tell me that I was always asking lots and lots of questions.

"Later, I went to the University of Illinois, where I studied graphic design. Then I moved to New York City, where I got a job doing artwork for television shows. Eventually I was asked to do the artwork for a children's show. While doing that show, some of the children asked me if I had ever thought of doing children's books. My mind immediately recalled how much I enjoyed doing that type of thing when I was a child d. So I put an idea for a book together and right away a publisher bought it. That book was called Willy and His Wheel Wagon.

"Since then, overseventy books that I have written and illustrated have been published. The type of books I write are nonfiction books. This is because I love researching so much. I get to ask lots of questions, just like when I was a kid. I also get to travel and meet lots of interesting people. While doing research for my book Nature's Green Umbrella: Tropical Rain Forests, I traveled to two islands where there are tropical rain forests, Saba and Dominica. I also had a great time writing and illustrating the book. I get a lot of pleasure from doing the type of work I do.

"Most of the time I live in Corinth, Vermont, in the middle of three hundred acres. I live with my husband, Kent Ancliffe, and our dog, Wilton. We also have three cats. My life in Vermont is very secluded. There are lots of wild animals that live on our property. We also spend a lot of time on an island off the coast of Maine where we have a little farmhouse. In fact, my book Christmas on an Island is about Christmas on this island.

"I have many hobbies, like swimming and boating, but my favorites are reading and creating books."

Describes the climatic conditions of the rain forest as well as the different layers of plants and animals that comprise the ecosystem.