Reading recommendations

The trees are fruiting, so I'm heading to Panama next week. In preparation, I re-read two of my favorite books today to my almost-five-year old cousin: The Great Kapok Tree and The Sea, the Storm, and the Mangrove Tangle. Both of these are by Lynne Cherry, with excellent illustrations and good environmental lessons. The first book takes place in the Brazilian rainforest, and features all the rainforest animals begging a sleeping logger to leave their rainforest trees standing. This was one of my favorite books as a child. I love the lush vegetation and rare animals depicted. The mangrove book shows the ecosystem that forms as one small mangrove seedling grows bigger and bigger. One of the prime threats to mangroves, shrimp farming, is mentioned but the book focuses on the resilience of these ecosystems to disturbance and shows how many different organisms depend on them.