Customer Reviews

If I Ran the Rain Forest: All About Tropical Rain Forests (Cat in the Hat's Learning Library)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is one of the best of The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library. The rhyming style is excellent. This book introduces such concepts as four levels of the rain forest, transpiration, animals in the forest, pollination, and camouflage.

This is the first time I've read a book from the Cat in the Hat Learning Library, so I wasn't sure what to expect. But I wasn't expecting this.

The illustrations make it look like the kids and the cat are having an adventure in the rainforest. But they aren't. They're just on a field trip, I guess.

The book goes over the four levels of the rainforest and names the different types of animals, plants, and people you would find in a rainforest. The main focus of the book seems to be maintaining the rhyme scheme rather than giving detailed information. At times, clarity is even sacrificed in order to maintain the rhyme. For example, "Millions of acres of land every year are cut down..." Cutting down land is confusing to a child. Usually trees or plants are cut down.

One funny thing was that the cat in the hat says he will give you a prize if you find these six things. Well, he's talking to the kids he is traveling with, not "you" the reader. So my 5-year-old son jumped in and named the things, then said "Where's my prize?"

So after around 40 pages of naming and discussing rainforest plants, animals, and people, a bulldozer showed up on the second to last page and the animals are running for their lives. On the last page the cat in the hat says "Save these trees please!" The end. Well, I like the environmental theme, but I had an awful lot of explaining to do when the bulldozer showed up. I think the book should have begun where it ended, because that is where the real story is. I buy books for my kids in the hope that the author can explain and illustrate a topic better than I can.

My son only asked me to read this book once, then never picked it up again.

I gave the book two stars for the unusual format. The novelty might appeal to some kids.

We have several books in this series, and my son loves them all. An enjoyable book for my 3 year old, and educational too.

What a wonderful way of introducing the young ones to names of trees?? Absolutely adored the rhyming words and my 5 year old is all geared up to start collecting leaves and learn all about them

I find this an outstanding book to introduce the rainforest to elementary children. The strength of the book is the many rainforest topics and themes it introduces. These topics and themes can then be elaborated on at a later time.

If I ran the rainforest is a great way to teach children about the rainforest. Including all four floors of the rainforest and which animals inhabit them. It also talks about how millions of acres are cut down every year and how we need to save the rain forest. I highly recommend this book and all of "The Cat in the Hat's learning library" series. They are great teaching tools for children.

This is a wonderful book. We have three small grandchildren, and they loved it, and continually want to read the book.

We have quite a few Dr. Seuss books, and believe we got this one from shop at our local zoo.

It simply doesn't come close to the Seuss classics.

The premise of the original Dr Seuss works was to present an engaging, fun story while only using a limited vocabulary and some fun rhymes, aimed at very young kids.

This story uses toddler-unfriendly words such as "Epiphytes", and horrible, unnatural rhymes that make me cringe whenever I read the book out loud. Add some over-simplified moralizing which flies over the head of a 4 year old anyway, and you have very poor book.

As I read this book, I can almost feel the rumble as the real Dr Seuss turns in his grave- Mercifully my children gravitate towards the "Cat in the hat", "One fish two fish", "Green eggs and ham" and "Fox in socks" so I don't have to read it too often. The only consolation for me when reading it has been the thought that I will be able to give it a review on Amazon - so here it is. Dont buy this book.

I will conclude with a note to the "Cat in the hat's learning library" : If you really want to save the rain forest, don't waste paper printing junk books like this.

The premise of this book is that the Cat in the Hat is our tour guide to the rainforest and he shows us birds, animals and plants that live there. There are astounding things to learn but I don't think having the Cat rhyme about them conveys the amazing REAL world of the rainforest. Shouldn't the astounding world of the rainforest be enough to recommend itself? This book also doesn't honor Dr. Seuss. Why is somebody trying to copy what essentially can't be copied?: the inventive, outlandish ((and note: OUT of this world and NOT of this world)) characters and word play. I don't like the mix of Seuss' world and the facts of the real world. What next? Will Sponge Bob introduce me to what it is like to go to the dentist? Will Garfield teach us all how to vote? Why have the images and concepts of Dr. Seuss been co-opted?
It is right to want to defend the rainforest but our children are supposed to care because a fantasy character wishes them to? I think children have a sense for these things and find the GENUINELY OUTLANDISH to be delightful -- and find the REAL FACTS of the world without garnishment to be fascinating.

My 6 yr old really enjoyed this intro book on rain forests. One of the off-shore excursions on our upcoming cruise is the Costa Rican rain forest and I purchased several books on rain forests to get him familiar with the topic This one was the perfect intro book for him. It was written in classic Seuss rhyming style which was engaging for my son. The illustrations were colorful and eye-catching and the information about rain forests was just enough for a 6yr old to understand and digest. We read it while also listening to a "Relax with Tropical Rain Forest" audio CD which provided an added dimension to the rain forest learning experience. I plan on reading the other books on rain forests to him but selectively as they contain much more advanced information.