Extreme Planet: Journey Through The Amazon

Rob Lloyd Jones

Wazza Pink

Usborne, 2024

16pp., board book, RRP $A19.99

9781805312185

This is a board book with just 16 pages, but in those 16 pages the reader is taken on the most remarkable journey along a river that is the world’s largest drainage system and which, because of the forests through which it flows, has been called “the lungs of the earth”. 

Through remarkable illustrations that leap off the page and a lift-the-flap format that make it interactive and thus more engaging, the reader is introduced to the Amazon’s flora and fauna in the canopy, along the river, in the jungle and on the ground as well as some of the peoples who have lived there for over 10 000 years. 

But this is not a mere travel guide and neither does it tell the entire story for there is so much more to be discovered.  Its purpose is to begin raising awareness of this remarkable, crucial landscape that is critical to the health of the planet. but as we are told, “While you’re read this book thousands more trees have been cut down [and] at this rate, the Amazon rainforest will be gone.” And so will its ability to counteract some of the pollution that is pumped into the planet’s atmosphere each day.

Part of the Extreme Planet series which includes Journey to the Earth’s Core, in which young readers are introduced to some of the amazing habitats of Earth and their inhabitants, in a way that is accessible to them through both format and text, it inspires a desire to know more as the narrative directly embraces the reader as their boots “squelch on the rotting woods and fallen leaves” and insects scurry through the gloom because so little sunlight reaches the forest floor. But beware – bright and colourful as they may be, some are deadly… Use this link to see for yourself.

And for those who do want to know more, there are the usual Quicklinks which are such a unique and integral part of this publisher’s presentations. Perhaps students could use what they learn and the format of the book to develop a wall display to help raise the awareness of their peers. 

One thing is for certain – by the time they have read this book, the word “Amazon” will be so much more than a large online shopping mall.