Where the Forest Meets the Sea (Hardcover)

~ (Author, Illustrator) "My father knows a place we can only reach by boat..." (more)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A boy travels with his father to a tropical rain forest. Walking among the trees and vines, he imagines the forest as it might have been in the past, with now-extinct creatures and aboriginal children inhabiting it. How much longer, the boy wonders, will the forest remain? Baker's portrayal of unspoiled nature is both an eloquent plea for conservation and a visual tour de force. Her collage constructions have the life and intensity of photographs; at the same time, they embody the inscrutable magic and spirit of a primeval forest. Dinosaurs emerge, barely perceptible, from a tangle of trunks and vines; the faint outlines of an aboriginal child melt into a background of trees; and, in the final, haunting scene, the unspoiled vista readers have toured is overlaid with translucent images of civilization's worst trappings. An exquisitely wrought work with a simple, profound message. All ages.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

My father says there has been a forest here for over a hundred million years," Jeannie Baker's young protagonist tells us, and we follow him on a visit to this tropical rain forest in North Queensland, Australia.

We walk with him among the ancient trees as he pretends it is a time long ago, when extinct and rare animals lived in the forest and aboriginal children played there. But for how much longer will the forest still be there, he wonders?

Jeannie Baker's lifelike collage illustrations take the reader on an extraordinary visual journey to an exotic, primeval wilderness, which like so many others is now being threatened by civilization.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books; Later Print edition (May 16, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688063632
• ISBN-13: 978-0688063634
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #207,254 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply stunning, May 1, 2000

By	saliero (NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

Jeannie Baker is a collage artist, and has created a beautiful book from a huge array of natural materials. The photographic illustrations of the collages have enormous texture.

An Honour Book in the Australian Children's Picture Book of the Year awards. It conveys a message of the need to care for the natural environment, and warns against the over-development of wilderness areas. Raises important issues in the most exquisite way.

Well-loved by children, and deserving of a place in every school, public and home library.

A beautiful depiction of an exquisite wilderness, the Daintree Rainforest of far north Queensland.

Also recommended for older children and adults who enjoy and appreciate innovative illustration and the art of children's books.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic illustrations and an important message., December 29, 1999

By A Customer

For years I used this story very successfully with my primary school classes, but now it is my 19 month daughter who loves this book and requests it to be read to her nearly every day. She is actually starting to memorise the story and often provides some of the words herself she has heard it that often. She spends ages pouring over each page looking at the detail in each amazing collage. I have visited the Daintree rainforest several times and wondered, as the author says, "But will the forest still be here when we come back?" I hope it will still be there when I can take my daughter to see it. Maybe, if enough people read this book to their children ...

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A BRILLIANT BOOK ABOUT A VERY SPECIAL PLACE -, December 7, 2000

By	david hurburgh (Flinders VIC Australia) - See all my reviews

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This is one of Jeannie Baker's early books, first published in 1988. It's good to see that it is still in print.

"Where The Forest Meets the Sea" is truly a work of art. It is an ideal companion to her most recent work "The Hidden Forest". It is fascinating to see how her style and technique has evolved and become increasingly sophisticated over the past 12 years.

Jeannie has an unashamedly environmental message to deliver, with her simple story lines dealing with the fragility of very special, ecologically unique areas. She doesn't push too hard with the rhetoric but lets her beautiful, ultra-lifelike, 3 dimensional images provide the perfect supporting context.

Having recently seen an exhibition of Jeannie's work that provided the images for "Hidden Forest" it is clear that it is the visual power of the images that is the most effective means of convincing people of the value of a particular environment.

In the dark forest scenes there are hidden dinosaurs and aboriginal figures providing a mystical quality to the book. The message that comes through is the timelessness of the natural environment.

We are reminded at the end of the book of the potential for man to radically change the environment for the worse. It takes books like this to provide us with insights and observations that will prevent this from happening.

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