Zonia's Rain Forest
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4.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
A heartfelt, visually stunning picture book from Caldecott Honor and Robert F. Sibert Medal winner Juana Martinez-Neal illuminates a young girl’s day of play and adventure in the lush rain forest of Peru. Zonia’s home is the Amazon rain forest, where it is always green and full of life. Every morning, the rain forest calls to Zonia, and every morning, she answers. She visits the sloth family, greets the giant anteater, and runs with the speedy jaguar. But one morning, the rain forest calls to her in a troubled voice. How will Zonia answer? Acclaimed author-illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal explores the wonders of the rain forest with Zonia, an Asháninka girl, in her joyful outdoor adventures. The engaging text emphasizes Zonia’s empowering bond with her home, while the illustrations—created on paper made from banana bark—burst with luxuriant greens and delicate details. Illuminating back matter includes a translation of the story in Asháninka, information on the Asháninka community, and resources on the Amazon rain forest and its wildlife.
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"Zonia lives with those she loves in the rain forest,/ where it is always green and full of life," begins Martinez-Neal (Alma and How She Got Her Name) in this un-flinching look at the changing Peruvian Amazon. Barefoot and wearing a yellow dress, brown-skinned Zonia sits with her mother and nursing baby brother. "Every morning, the rain forest calls to Zonia.// Every morning, Zonia answers." In wispy mixed-media art that includes linocuts on banana bark paper, Martinez-Neal introduces Zonia's friends, the animals of the Amazon—blue morph butterflies, river dolphins, sloths, and more—who interact with the child in their shared home. ("You are my favorite," she whispers, nose to nose with a coati.) As Zonia heads back to her mother, though, she receives a new call from her beloved forest when she stumbles upon a place where the trees and undergrowth have been destroyed—only stumps remain. Further supporting this striking look at the way environmental destruction disenfranchises Indigenous communities, back matter contextualizes the final images and, alongside material about life in the Amazon, includes a translation of the text into Asháninka. Ages 4–8.
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