The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest [Hardcover]

Lynne Cherry (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 4 and up | Grade Level: K and up | Series: Gulliver books

Exhausted from his labors, a man chopping down a great kapok tree in the Brazilian rain forest puts down his ax, and, as he sleeps, the animals who live in the tree plead with him not to destroy their world. "This modern fable with its urgent message contains an abundance of information."--The Horn Book

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This beautifully illustrated and highly recommended book is widely used in primary schools in the U.S. to convince children of the importance of rain-forest conservation. Lynne Cherry visited the Amazon rain forest to gather drawings for the book, and the simple story and vivid illustrations capture the reality and lushness of the forest in a way she could not have by working from mere photographs.

From Publishers Weekly

In this breathtakingly beautiful picture book, Cherry combines illustrations that reveal a naturalist's reverence for beauty with a mythlike story that explains the ecological importance of saving the rain forests. The text is not a didactic treatise, but a simply told story about a man who falls asleep while chopping down a kapok tree. The forest's inhabitants--snakes, butterflies, a jaguar, and finally a child--each whisper in his ear about the terrible consequences of living in "a world without trees" or beauty, about the interconnectedness of all living things. When the man awakens and sees all the extraordinary creatures around him, he leaves his ax and "walks out of the rain forest." A map showing the earth's endangered forests and the creatures that dwell within ends the book which, like the rain forests themselves, is "wondrous and rare." Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4 and up
  
• Hardcover: 40 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books (March 15, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 015200520X
• ISBN-13: 978-0152005207
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #95,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #31 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Environment & Ecology
  • #35 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Nature > Environment
  • #50 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works > Health > Diseases

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Children's Environmental Literature Classic, July 5, 2000

By 

Maggie Wolfe Riley (Bishop, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest (Hardcover)

This is a beautifully illustrated fable of interdependence in the rain forest. As a teacher, I use this story to teach about ecosystems here at home. Even though it is appropriate for younger children, I read it to my outdoor school students (5th-6th grade) on the day we study ecosystems to help them understand the inter-relationships we see and study in the field. I like to bring the story to life by giving the animals special voices (lots of hissssing for the snake, chattering for the monkeys, squawking for the birds, etc.) At first the students laugh and are amused by the voices, but when the tree frogs talk about ruined lives and being left homeless, they begin to get more serious, and by the time the sloth asks "How much is beauty worth? Can you live without it?" they are fully engrossed. After reading the story, I send the students out to find a "magic spot" to do a writing assignment: write their own story of "The Great ______" substituting a plant they have learned about during their week at outdoor school for Kapok Tree.

The only thing I don't like about this story is that students, in their black and white morality, sometimes only take home the message that "it's bad to cut down trees." I like the book "The Gift of the Tree" because it doesn't have this morality tale aspect, and "Just a Dream," because it places responsibility on each of our shoulders, not just "someone" like the tree cutter in this story. But I use this story in conjunction with those others and discuss this issue with the students. This is definitely a classic in Children's Environmental Literature!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful pictures with a beautiful message., September 22, 2001

By 

Samanthia Noble (Oxford, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest (Paperback)

My son and I love this book. We received it as a prize at an Earth Day celebration and have gotten a lot of use out of it. I love the beautiful pictures and my son loves it when I make up voices for each of the animals. I feel good about reading this book to him, because the message is clear. We live on a planet with many cultures and many other living creatures. We should respect that. I have gone out to check out other books by Lynne Cherry and love them all. But The Great Kapok Tree remains my favorite.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Dream, October 5, 2002

By 

booknblueslady (Woodland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest (Paperback)

Beautiful, wild places inspire and I love to introduce this concept to young children who are so very sensitive to the beauty around them. Children love to produce images of a world butterflies, rainbows and flowers. Lynne Cherry uses this love to capture and intrigue children in her book about The Great Kapok Tree set in the heart of the Amazon rain forest.

Ms Cherry is an author and illustrator of children's books who has a sensitivity for ecological issues. In The Great Kapok Tree she presents a jungle teaming with life. A man tires as he begins cutting the great tree down with an ax. He tires and sleeps. While he sleeps the animals come out of the rain forest to give him a lesson about the importance of the tree. Snakes, monkeys, butterflies, parrots, toucans, frogs jaguars and sloths all give him a pitch. Each tree is important in the rain forest.

Lynne Cherry's illustrations are gorgeous, green and so alive. Her inspiration was the Amazon rain forest which she traveled to and sketch while researching this book. Each page impresses the reader with the lushness and beauty of the region.

While it may seem that the concept of ecology is a bit sophisticated for a four year old it is important to remember that our early values shape our lives. It is my hope that the children of today will have of deep love of nature that will inspire them to take the necessary care of the earth ion their future.

This book is a wonderful gift to a child. I have read it to children numerous times and they are always mesmerized by it.