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hollyxbear's review against another edition
4.0
I loved this book. Especially the fact that they wrote the words in the native tongue of the people who live in the amazon rainforest. It is a wonderful book on conservation. I would love to read more from this author.
ofloveandlayovers's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
3.0
jaij7's review against another edition
5.0
Gorgeous illustrations! I love the introduction to the Ashaninka of the Amazon.
kelleemoye's review against another edition
4.0
Zonia’s story starts as a story of family. We meet her mother and baby brother and the love between them is evident in the words and illustrations.
The book then moves to Zonia’s adventures visiting her friends throughout the rain forest. We get to meet all of her animal friends. With backmatter introducing the type of animals, Trent and I went on a research exploration of the different rain forest animals that Martinez-Neal introduced to us.
The book ends with a call to action. Zonia is Asháninka, Indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon, so the rain forest is her home. Her family’s home. The book ends with Zonia running across deforestation near her home and realizing that the forest needs her, and all of our, help.
And finally, the backmatter of the book is incredible. Juana Martinez-Neal, who is Peruvian, is not Asháninka, so I am not sure of the accuracy of the portrayal, but the backmatter shows the work she did to do justice to them and their home. The back matter includes a translation of the entire book to Asháninka, information about the Asháninka People, a few facts about the Amazon, threats to the Amazon, and Zonia’s friends we met in the book. Finally, especially useful for in the classroom, she includes selected sources and resources, all which can be viewed at https://juanamartinezneal.com/books/zonia/.
With Martinez-Neal’s ability to craft the simplistic text in a beautiful way mixed with her signature illustrations, full of movement, color, and personality along with the rain forest elements, Zonia’s Rainforest is a perfect book for story time, science cross-curricular reading, a jumping off point for inquiry, or a mentor text.
Full review with teaching tools: http://www.unleashingreaders.com/?p=23108
The book then moves to Zonia’s adventures visiting her friends throughout the rain forest. We get to meet all of her animal friends. With backmatter introducing the type of animals, Trent and I went on a research exploration of the different rain forest animals that Martinez-Neal introduced to us.
The book ends with a call to action. Zonia is Asháninka, Indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon, so the rain forest is her home. Her family’s home. The book ends with Zonia running across deforestation near her home and realizing that the forest needs her, and all of our, help.
And finally, the backmatter of the book is incredible. Juana Martinez-Neal, who is Peruvian, is not Asháninka, so I am not sure of the accuracy of the portrayal, but the backmatter shows the work she did to do justice to them and their home. The back matter includes a translation of the entire book to Asháninka, information about the Asháninka People, a few facts about the Amazon, threats to the Amazon, and Zonia’s friends we met in the book. Finally, especially useful for in the classroom, she includes selected sources and resources, all which can be viewed at https://juanamartinezneal.com/books/zonia/.
With Martinez-Neal’s ability to craft the simplistic text in a beautiful way mixed with her signature illustrations, full of movement, color, and personality along with the rain forest elements, Zonia’s Rainforest is a perfect book for story time, science cross-curricular reading, a jumping off point for inquiry, or a mentor text.
Full review with teaching tools: http://www.unleashingreaders.com/?p=23108
litagentsaritza's review against another edition
5.0
Loved this beautiful story about Zonia and her home, the Amazon rainforest.
crystal_reading's review against another edition
Review copy: Digital ARC via publisher
This is a gorgeous book and it is lovely that the paper the illustrations were made on was created by women of the Amazon with leaves from the rain forest. There is definitely a connection to the land and the people even through the physical creation of the book.
Martinez-Neal is from Peru, but is not part of the community represented in the book. I have no way of determining if the people are being shown in an accurate light, but it does seem that the author went to great lengths to be respectful and she didn't work in isolation. She explains that she wanted to show the resiliance of the Asháninka and their resistance to the outside pressures that would attempt to change their way of life and take or negatively impact the resources from their homeland.
The story begins gently with Zonia sitting near her mother who is nursing her brother. A blue morpho butterfly then leads Zonia through the pages of the book. The journey playful as Zonia greets her many animal friends. The illustrations have so much texture and are pretty adorable. One bird is red with white wing tips. The wing tips are overlapping just a bit and it gives the impression of a heart. There's just so much love and joy on each page as she interacts with the animals. This makes it quite jarring when Zonia comes across a part of the forest that is not filled with that same loveliness.
Zonia's story shares much of the beauty that can be found in the rain forest, but also briefly touches on some of the threats to the forest. Even though there is reason to be concerned, there is also a determination to do something about it. This is all dealt with in an age appropriate way and caregivers can choose to share more information via the back matter if there are questions or for the youngest readers, just stick with the text and illustrations of the story.
The back matter is fantastic and explains about the variety of threats, some of the things that are being done about them, includes the common and Latin names of all of the animals and an Asháninka translation of the main text. The entire books is also available in Spanish.
Recommendation: Zonia's Rain Forest is a delight and can be read as a very simple story or as a call to action. It will be a great addition to any home or library serving young people.
This is a gorgeous book and it is lovely that the paper the illustrations were made on was created by women of the Amazon with leaves from the rain forest. There is definitely a connection to the land and the people even through the physical creation of the book.
Martinez-Neal is from Peru, but is not part of the community represented in the book. I have no way of determining if the people are being shown in an accurate light, but it does seem that the author went to great lengths to be respectful and she didn't work in isolation. She explains that she wanted to show the resiliance of the Asháninka and their resistance to the outside pressures that would attempt to change their way of life and take or negatively impact the resources from their homeland.
The story begins gently with Zonia sitting near her mother who is nursing her brother. A blue morpho butterfly then leads Zonia through the pages of the book. The journey playful as Zonia greets her many animal friends. The illustrations have so much texture and are pretty adorable. One bird is red with white wing tips. The wing tips are overlapping just a bit and it gives the impression of a heart. There's just so much love and joy on each page as she interacts with the animals. This makes it quite jarring when Zonia comes across a part of the forest that is not filled with that same loveliness.
Zonia's story shares much of the beauty that can be found in the rain forest, but also briefly touches on some of the threats to the forest. Even though there is reason to be concerned, there is also a determination to do something about it. This is all dealt with in an age appropriate way and caregivers can choose to share more information via the back matter if there are questions or for the youngest readers, just stick with the text and illustrations of the story.
The back matter is fantastic and explains about the variety of threats, some of the things that are being done about them, includes the common and Latin names of all of the animals and an Asháninka translation of the main text. The entire books is also available in Spanish.
Recommendation: Zonia's Rain Forest is a delight and can be read as a very simple story or as a call to action. It will be a great addition to any home or library serving young people.