Customer Reviews

The Shaman's Apprentice: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest

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4 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

"The Shaman's Apprentice" presents more information about the relationship between people and nature than many much larger volumes. The story of Kamanya, Gabriela, and the shaman Nahtahlah, educates children about the important roles of all living things. The text is supported by rich and colorful illustrations which easily maintains the interest of children from four to 14. If you want the children in your life to understand the importance of rain forests and the need to preserve them, you must have this book.

A compelling and tender story with beautiful, botanically correct and lush illustrations - this is a wonderful guide to rain forest life and healing powers. Fun for children and their parents to read!

The Shaman's Apprenctice is one of the rarest of books. It combines an engaging true story with beautiful illustrations. The result in an aural-visual experience that transcends the age of the audience and presents a valuable message to all. It should be required reading for every planetary denizen.

I saw this book on Reading Rainbow today, and I was enthralled by the story and the beautiful illustrations. The episode took Levar to the village the book was about and introduced us to the apprentice, now grown, being teacher to the village and his twin sons. My daughter is only a year old, but just the colors kept her attention. I look forward to when the words will have the same effect, as I'm sure they will.

This beautifully illustrated and wonderfully written book is that rare children's story that teaches and says something important while preserving the wonder and magic of how children (grown and otherwise) view the world.

I think most people would agree that truly outstanding children's books have a number of characteristics in common: they are well written, they teach children (and their parents) something useful, they embrace difference and diversity, and they have attractive illustrations. This book has all of this and much more. Just start by flipping through the pages and treat your eyes to the sumptuous, and very realistic, illustrations of the Amazon Rainforest, a natural wonder that most of the world's children will never get a chance to see. Then read the story itself: as the title and the cover illustration suggest, it is a tale (based on fact, I might add) of a young boy who dreams of being a Shaman's apprentice. But it is much more profound than that. It is also an alluring story about a so-called primitive society that almost looses faith in its own worth when white missionaries come to their villages and begin to proselytize and to distribute medicines that are supposedly much more effective than those that the Shaman makes from the trees and plants of the rainforest. The villagers' discovery that many of the white man's medicines are actually derived from tropical plants is a much a revelation as it is a redemption. All of this is told though the experiences of the young boy who wants to follow in the footsteps of the Shaman in whom he had always had faith. A really remarkable story! The illustrations are second-to-none, there is little more to say about them than that!

amazon.com should feature this book about its namesake!

I was first attracted to this book by the cover art. It depicts a scene with an older man and a young boy looking around the rainforest with wisdom and awe. As it sub-title states, A Tale of the Amazon rain forest, I was not misled. This is a fiction book yet the information is accurate. It displays the plants and tribal life in a typical Amazonian village.

The illustrations were colorful, realistic and related to the text. On the inside front and back cover pages are drawings of Amazonian plants. These drawings give the name of the plant and its medicinal use. As an adult, I found that interesting and, as a teacher, I was able to use these pages with my students to teach about rain forest plants.

The story follows a young Amazonian boy who when first introduced is lying sick in his hammock. After he is visited by the tribe's medicine man - the shaman - he recovers from his fever. The boy learns from the shaman, from visits from white missionaries, and from his own people. The story is interesting and does stay on point - the importance of protecting the healing plants of the earth.

This book is appropriate for grades 1-4. Many teaching activities can be found within the pages of this book. For example, matching the plants pictured in the front of the book to the plants illustrating the dialogue pages. Younger children would like to find and identify the animals shown throughout this book.

I would recommend this book to parents and teachers.

Thomas Sandusky, author of Gracie the glass tree frog

It was a really good book. I'd recommend it. It is about a boy in Kwamala that wants to be a Shaman. He becomes the Shaman's apperentice. Read this book if you want to know if he becomes a Shaman himself. This would be a good book for 10 year olds.

I had to laugh at the reviewer who said "a very young child doesn't need to be seeing graphic rears and breasts" - especially considering the fact that, well, MY very young child sees MY breasts up front and personal on a regular basis every single day. But anyway, I digress, somewhat. There really ARE no "rears" graphically displayed - there are a couple of vary vague side views peeking out from long loin clothes, and I never saw anything i recognized as a breast, unless it was, perhaps, the pudgy chest of an older indigenous man. This book is beautiful - we first saw it in the local library and I bought it in the Amazon marketplace on the spot. It's the kind of truth and the kind of story I want my daughter reading from a very young age (and honestly? I want her to know that 'rears and breasts', in the right, natural context, are exactly that - NATURAL!). The artwork is beautiful.

Loved using this book to help my boys (8 and 10) understand the true history of medicine. My kids are visual learners, so even at their ages, it helps to have books on their reading levels, which still include pictures. Also, our family uses a number of natural healers to help our autistic son, which has made us quite the "alternative" family in our community. This book demystifies the world of herbal remedies and hands on healing in a way that anyone can easily undersand and appreciate. I noticed a shift in my children's attitudes about being the "alternative" family. It is an objective story, based on history.