This Place Is High: The Andes Mountains of South America (Imagine Living Here)

ea. vol: illus. by Barbara Lavallee. 32p. (Imagine Living Here Series). CIP. Walker. Oct. 1989. Tr $12.95; PLB $13.85. Grade 3-5-- The two new entries in this series both cover climate zones in South America. This Place is High , set in the High Andes of Bolivia and Peru, describes life on the altiplano , two and a half miles above sea level, and the ways the native peoples, plants, and animals have adapted to it. It also gives a very brief summary of the rise and fall of the Inca Empire. This Place is Wet discusses the climate, flora, fauna, and human life styles along the Manaus River in the rain forest of the Amazon Basin, Brazil. Both are presented in a picture-book format with a middle-grade text. As in the earlier books, this format lim: its the appeal to browsers who will not think the books too "babyish" for reports. Lavallee's Indians, llamas, and guinea pigs are colorfully rendered and would make wonderful decorations for a folktale or fictional story, but it is unfortunate that these workmanlike texts do not have good color photos. Her Brazilian scenes work better; there is a deliciously evil-looking caiman alligator on the title page, but the pastel-on-white paintings of the rain forest floor give no sense of the real, dark, mysterious lower level in which there is always deep shade, and only light-intolerant plants can survive. --Rosanne Cerny, Queens Borough Public Library, NY
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.