Reviews for The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest

The average rating for The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-01-21 00:00:00 Alex Horkay Okay, first let me say that this is a lovely book--the writing style is simple but touching, the artwork is great--realistic yet still "artsy" (I love the inside-cover spread with the map of the world, showing the rain forest areas, and then a border of rain forest fauna). Also, I am all for the message of conservation--this one wasn't too heavy-handed, but still will help raise children's awareness that it is important to preserve nature. This book still rather annoyed me, though, following a bit too close to one of the lines that I find extremely afrustrating in much of the conservation literature, etc. Namely, that the "Bad Guy" is the one who cuts down the trees (or hunts the wildlife, or...)and--that's it! rather than going the extra distance to show that, well, WHY is he cutting down the trees!? It's not just for fun. Is it that he is greedy? Well, perhaps. Or perhaps he is simply trying to provide for his family who might otherwise starve as native ways of life fade and industrialism creeps into all corners of the globe. And, further, would he be cutting down the trees if there was not a market for the wood or land--perhaps we should look deeper, to someone else down the line, all the way down the line, to the end-consumer??? These books do not reach far enough!!! Now, I'm not saying that I don't buy new things--I'm certainly not as "green" as I want to be--but I do try to be aware of how much I'm buying, from where, and what the impact may be if I'm not sometimes buying used or buying from sustainable sources. I think that environmental-message books for kids do a disservice to them if they simply stop at showing a South American man (dressed in "Western" clothes) attempting to chop down a Kapok tree... Make the children aware of their place in all this (or, at least, their parents' place) and this will give them also a greater sense of empowerment. I mean, as a kid I always though, well, gosh, OF COURSE I want to save the whales, of course I wouldn't cut down trees, of course I wouldn't hunt elephants! But, I didn't really realize how I could do anything about it until I started to talk it over with my parents. Sorry for the tangent, but I just hope there are more environmental-message books out there that will involve children!!! If any of you have suggestions, let me know.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-03-15 00:00:00 Justin Bain i remember reading this in third grade with my teacher and our whole class. we did a whole unit on the rainforest and it fascinated me and also made me sad to learn that so much of it was in danger of being cut down and destroyed. i'm even sadder reading it today, knowing now that of course it's not as easy as it was in the book to convince people not to destroy it for their own monetary gain. but still i think it's important that kids continue to read the great kapok tree and books like it today because it makes them think about the wrongs that humans inflict on nature. maybe they will make conscious choices to do their part, however small, to make things better or at least not any worse. this book is filled with beautiful illustrations of animals in the canopy of a great kapok tree. the author lynne cherry actually traveled to the amazon rainforest to do research on the illustrations in this book:)