22nd June World Rainforest Day

June 22 is World Rainforest Day, which is a “collaborative effort to raise awareness and encourage action to protect the world’s rainforests”.

Tropical rainforests have an outsized role in the world. Of the Earth’s ecosystems, rainforests support the largest variety of plants and animal species, house the majority of indigenous groups still living in isolation from the rest of humanity, and power the mightiest rivers. Rainforests lock up vast amounts of carbon, moderate local temperature, and influence rainfall and weather patterns at regional and planetary scales. 

The Amazon Rainforest makes up nearly a third of all the tropical rainforests left on Earth and it plays a vital role in sustaining life on the planet to help stabilise the climate. Yet, this vast, tropical wilderness and its inhabitants are losing the fight for survival.

It is important for children to know about the role of rainforests. In the library, the books we have concentrate on the joy and animals found in rainforests but as they get older things like deforestation become more important.

Whenever  Rainforest by Julia Groves is on display it is borrowed almost immediately. This simple book's cover illustration, its immediacy and the size and shape of the book make it so appealing.

Books in the library:

• Rainforest by Julia Groves

• Over and Under the Rainforest by Kate Messner and Christopher Silas Neal

• The Rainforest Book  by Charlotte Milner    

• The Really Old Forest by Cecil Kim and Elsa Huet

• We're Roaming in the Rainforest  by Laurie Krebs and Anne Wilson

• Secrets of the Rainforest by Carron Brown and Alyssa Nassner

• Going to the Rainforest by Black Dog Books

• Let's Visit the Rainforest  by Buffy Silverman

• Rainforest by Roger Priddy

• Creatures of the Rainforest by Warren Brim and Anna Eglitis

• Rainforest by Helen Cowcher

• The Tree of Wonder  by Kate Messner

I like to connect the students to people who have a passion for what we are talking about. I usually do this through a picture book biography or a film clip. These two biographies are perfect for this:

• Rainforest Warrior by Anita gainer and Margaux Carpentier

This is the story of Chico Mendez, a Brazilian rubber tapper in the Amazon rainforest who became an environmental activist who fought to save the Amazon.

• The Leaf Detective; How Margaret Lowman Uncovered Secrets in the Rainforest  by Heather Lang and Jana Christy.

This is the story of Meg Lowman who was a courageous explorer, who made amazing discoveries high in the forest canopy despite challenges such as males who thought a woman shouldn't be up in the trees and loggers who were clearing the forests. She became  a pioneer scientist in a discipline that demands exceptional imagination, courage, and physical rigour. But of equal importance, she has created an extraordinarily important branch of environmental and conservation research.