CHILDREN SAVE THE RAIN FOREST

A mild rendition of the story of the International Children's Rain Forest, so named because thus far, 42,000 acres of Costa Rican forest have been purchased and preserved through the fund-raising efforts of children. In a departure from her usual style, Patent (Hugger to the Rescue, 1994, etc.) brings immediacy to her journey with a first- person narration in the first and last chapters. But the book is not as focused as many of her works. Despite the title, the children's efforts are not thoroughly discussed until the middle of the book, and then in no more detail than can be found in magazine articles. Patent's arguments as to why tropical rain forests should be saved are somewhat weak and not particularly unique to those habitats. Inserts in the chapters highlighting particular animals or plants convey information but also break up the flow of the main story. Perlman's full-color photographs are exquisite and capture some of the enormous variety of plant and animal life there; still, the pictures lose some of their impact when readers are invited, in the afterword, to buy rain forest greeting cards from Perlman, with a portion of the profits going toward preservation of the rain forest. Patent also suggests that readers raise money by holding bake sales and car washes, collecting pennies, etc. That children preserved part of a rain forest will empower readers, but the fund- raising message may be a bit overreaching. (maps, glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 10+)