Rain Forest Girl: More Than an Adoption Story

Rating:
Summary: Nonfiction illustrated record of adoption of Brazilian child
Review: Review by Carolyn B. Leonard ©1998 1st NASR, All rights reserved 334 words

Title: RAIN FOREST GIRL Subtitle: More Than an Adoption Story by Chalise Miner (Mitchell Lane Publishers, Inc, Hardback $16.95) ISBN 1-883845-65-3

This nonfiction record, illustrated with photographs, relates a nine-year-old girl's experiences before and after she leaves her mother in the jungle of the Brazilian rain forest. She faces new challenges with her adoptive American family. Some ten thousand school-age children come to America every year as adoptees; this book should help their new families understand the difficulties these children encounter. The book is available in hardback or paperback, a quick-read of less than 50 pages.

In Brazil Daiane (pronounced (Die-on-ee) never went to school. Once out of her toddler stage, she was responsible for catching and cooking her own fish and other food. She was hungry most of the time but she set her own bedtimes, slept in a hammock under the stars, and she never worried about what to wear. Her playmates were the monkeys and other wild animals who lived in the forest. She shared a tiny thatched-roof lean-to with her mother and her grandmother, but the family lifestyle required the youngster to remain independent, relying on her own resources. Once in the United States, Daiane became Diana and no one understood her native Portuguese. She had to wear stiff leather shoes and scratchy clothes on her lithe tanned body. Instead of resting at night on a swaying hammock, she slept on a strange white bed inside the house. There was no deep cold river in which to swim; instead she played in a ³box² filled with warm water and bubbles. There were unfamiliar foods to eat, lots of people everywhere, and as readers may imagine, many new important rules to learn such as: don't eat with your fingers, pick up your things, tie your shoes, watch out for cars, follow the rules. And there were switches. She could never remember which ones to turn off and which to turn on.

Sometimes Daiane forgot to be thankful her life changed in so many new and wonderful ways.

Reviewed by Carolyn B. Leonard

Rating:
Summary: Nonfiction illustrated record of adoption of Brazilian child
Review: Review by Carolyn B. Leonard ©1998 1st NASR, All rights reserved 334 words

Title: RAIN FOREST GIRL Subtitle: More Than an Adoption Story by Chalise Miner (Mitchell Lane Publishers, Inc, Hardback $16.95) ISBN 1-883845-65-3

This nonfiction record, illustrated with photographs, relates a nine-year-old girl's experiences before and after she leaves her mother in the jungle of the Brazilian rain forest. She faces new challenges with her adoptive American family. Some ten thousand school-age children come to America every year as adoptees; this book should help their new families understand the difficulties these children encounter. The book is available in hardback or paperback, a quick-read of less than 50 pages.

In Brazil Daiane (pronounced (Die-on-ee) never went to school. Once out of her toddler stage, she was responsible for catching and cooking her own fish and other food. She was hungry most of the time but she set her own bedtimes, slept in a hammock under the stars, and she never worried about what to wear. Her playmates were the monkeys and other wild animals who lived in the forest. She shared a tiny thatched-roof lean-to with her mother and her grandmother, but the family lifestyle required the youngster to remain independent, relying on her own resources. Once in the United States, Daiane became Diana and no one understood her native Portuguese. She had to wear stiff leather shoes and scratchy clothes on her lithe tanned body. Instead of resting at night on a swaying hammock, she slept on a strange white bed inside the house. There was no deep cold river in which to swim; instead she played in a ³box² filled with warm water and bubbles. There were unfamiliar foods to eat, lots of people everywhere, and as readers may imagine, many new important rules to learn such as: don't eat with your fingers, pick up your things, tie your shoes, watch out for cars, follow the rules. And there were switches. She could never remember which ones to turn off and which to turn on.

Sometimes Daiane forgot to be thankful her life changed in so many new and wonderful ways.

Reviewed by Carolyn B. Leonard