Deserts and Rainforests

School Library Journal

K-Gr 2In 24 pages, Llewellyn attempts to compare and contrast the climate, vegetation, fauna, and human populations of deserts and tropical rainforests. This task requires that information on each topic be limited to two or three brief paragraphs. The results are oversimplified generalities that provide little substantive help even for the most uninformed child. Lewis's illustrations have a cartoonlike quality that mirrors the simple tone of the text but do little to supply additional insights. In fact, some of them, such as the village of rainforest people bringing piles of bananas for a communal gathering near the river, border on clich. Teachers and parents would be better advised to seek out recent volumes on the individual ecosystems rather than settling for this unsuccessful combination that does justice to neither.Kathy Piehl, Mankato State University, MN