Absolutely terrific... for older children and for adults. ?áIt's much too long to straight read to toddlers. ?áOtoh, there are lots of pictures. ?áAnd I loved that it was told from the perspective of a mom scientist who takes her sons with her, and they have responsibilities and make discoveries, too! ?áThorough, engaging, probably best for about 5th grade. The scientist, Meg Lowman, believes that science is the machinery that runs the earth." ?áThe text explains that she means this in the sense of wondering "How many species can be removed before it will break?" Meg divides her time between the rainforest floor, the canopy, and her lab back in the US. ?áShe works very hard, as an attentive reader can see she must, in the appr. 5 days/month she's in the canopy. ?áShe must, because all this adventuring costs a fair bit of money and time. ?áOk, not as much money as a linear accelerator or fMRIs on a lab full of rhesus monkeys, but, for example, when she was working in Cameroon she viewed the canopy from a raft hung from a dirigible! Anyway, an example of the hard work that impressed my 19 yo son was that "Meg begins taking 'snapshots' of leaf-eating activity. ?áLast month she had marked every leaf on several branches with a number ?áShe now checks to see how much of each leaf has been eaten." ?áBack at camp, after the boys are asleep (after reading [book:Treasure Island|897462] toegether) she traces some of the leaves onto graph paper to be as precise as possible. ?áScience is adventure *and* thorough, meticulous record-keeping. On a little after-dinner walk son James notices a web moving. ?áMeg says it's the breeze. ?áJames isn't convinced, and then they realize "the spider is winching in its own web by pulling on a line. ?áThen... the web springs back, and at its trembling center is a small insect.... ?áMeg is astounded. ?áNever before had she seen or even heard of such a spider." ?á(Unfortunately I'm unable to find confirmation that this was new to science and whether the boys got credit/naming rights.)" ( )

This is a great book that has the ability to fascinate youngsters, as it has truly beautiful photographs of different rain forests and tells the story of a very interesting female scientist, Meg Lowman. The audience is for older elementary children, but I think that even younger elementary children would enjoy listening to it and looking at the photos. I think that it is considered specialized nonfiction because the authors center the focus of the book on the wonders of rainforest canopies. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the rainforest, and anyone who is going on a vacation to a rainforest because it--both interestingly and simply--describes life in the canopy of a rainforest. ( )