Where the Forest Meets the Sea

I really enjoyed this book and it's illustrations. It tells of a sweet tale of an adventurous father and son relationship. This boy's father takes the son to this little island that barely any people go to. The boy describes his little adventure into the forest. He finds a tree that is a perfect little hiding spot because the tree is hollow. I loved how the very last page leaves a strong message. It was a picture of the island with very faded images of commercial things like a hotel and cars. The author leaves us with the words, "But will the forest still be here when we come back?" This is a powerful message to show that society is ruining forests to put buildings on.

For what this book lacks in quality storytelling, it more than makes up for with the illustrations. We follow a young boy on a (camping?) trip with his father to a rainforest in Australia (the end page reveals it is an actual existing rainforest that is, unfortunately, disappearing with time). He goes into the woods, looks around, finds a cool hollow tree, he comes out, he meets his dad back on the beach, where dad is cooking a fish he's caught to eat. Yeah, so what? What you don't find out until the informative end page (not part of the story) is that the illustrations--which look interesting, but not entirely special at first glance--are actually photocopies of relief collages that the illustrator compiled using real materials from show more the rainforest in the story. The reproductions of this art throughout the book now become truly meaningful, and at second glance one can truly appreciate the beauty of it. The illustrator made a few trips to Australia to gather materials and complete the project. It's serious artwork. In the story, there's a noteworthy reference to the aborigines of the area, which might make for an interesting discussion. Aside from the illustrations and cultural references, the book was really kind of boring. show less

I'm keeping this one. I love the craftsmanship that reveals scenes from the child's imagination overlaid on the collages to make the whole look both real and beautiful. And I appreciate that there aren't too many words, but that the author did, somewhat, let the pictures tell the story.

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.

This is the story of a boy who 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.Dinosaurs emerge, barely perceptible, from a tangle of trunks and vines. The faint outline of a child melts into a background of trees. The vast and detailed forest is described impeccably throughout.

A boy's narration of a trip by boat with his father to a secret beach. The boy follows a stream into the rainforest and begins to imagine what it was like "a hundred million years ago" -- and the collages reveal those shadows of the past, e.g., dinosaurs and aborigines. The father builds a fire and cooks the fish he caught -- and the boy wonders if the forest will still be there in the future. The final double-spread shows faint images of hotels, tourist, and development superimposed on the beach.

A young boy goes on a camping trip with his father and explores a rain forest. A story told mostly through pictures. The illustrations are relief collages. They show ghosts of the past and future. Kids are mesmerized by the illustrations. A great book for kicking off a unit on ecology, conservation, or the rain forest.