Where the Forest Meets the Sea: 1

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I really enjoyed this story and especially loved the illustrations in the book, as they are in fact photos of handmade collages made by Jeannie Baker herself. After a salad lunch, we check into an apartment at Reef Resort, then make a blissful beeline for one of the resort’s three pools. The environmental message here is even more obvious than some of Baker's other works, but any preachiness is redeemed by the gorgeous art. And I certainly appreciate the message of wanting to preserve the forest because it becomes but a distant memory itself. This book has great potential for cross curricular links –English literacy, physical geography (on the last page of the story there is a map of Australia which identifies the location of the Daintree, the book could also be used as a basis for a lesson on rainforests and different environments), history (considering change over time, people and creatures who have come before us and what things may be like in the future).

Opening this expertly designed picture book reveals two parallel wordless tales: one to be read left to right, the other right to left.

As with her other fiction picture books, she includes an author’s note at the end where she shares a bit about the environmental peril we’re in, in this case the wet tropical rain forest wilderness and Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Decide whichquestionsto use for,whole class discussion, small group orpaired activities and individual reflections. A boy goes on a boat trip with his father to a remote reef, where he wanders through the unspoilt rainforest, imagining the animals and people who have lived there.After looking at photos and brainstorming, students create posters to push their own message (Author’s Purpose) and reflect with their peers on how effective their poster was. As we look into the future aprehenisions for the forest, we (along with the boy) are faced with the question: How much longer will this forest be here? A boy and his father travel in their boat, ‘Time Machine’, to a stretch of beach beside a primordial tropical rainforest.

It isn't my favourite book of Baker's but I do like it and I recommended it as a way to see a creators growth.

The story features a little boy with a wild imagination who explores the pristine forest as his father fishes. If you like this lesson plan, or have an idea to improve it, please consider sharing it on Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook or leave a comment below. The reader is allowed to follow the child on his wonderful journey, exploring nature with his senses: “I sit very still and watch and listen. All resources generated by teachers for teachers and are aligned to the curriculum, so you don't have to.

You want to put your hand on the pages and feel the different textures, except it is just normal paper. My father says there has been a forest here for over a hundred million years," Jeannie Baker's young protagonist tells us, and we follow him on a visit to this tropical rain forest. I found this to be the interesting part as the individual chooses what they value and which scene is more important to them. They liked to talk and comment on each page and this was the kind of book which offered many opportunities for interesting conversation. This is a beautiful book, with a young boy exploring and communing with the Daintree Rainforest in North Queensland, Australia.Students are to conduct a gallery walk and, as a class, discuss the question: ‘What is something you found interesting, surprising, common, etc. Look at pictures of the Daintree Rainforest and brainstorm some captions that would be persuasive and encourage people to be environmentally conscious. Everything from the collage illustrations to the imaginative elements of long lost dinosaurs and prehistoric beasts, it simply captivated me. The contrasting light and dark images would also provide a stimulus for language development and creative writing. There is lots of scope for discussion around this book, for example, talking about the things which the boy encounters, comparing and contrasting the boys environment to places your pupils have been, trying to find things hidden in the illustrations and considering what it would be like if the trees were cut down and replaced with buildings.