Join Read City USA on our journey to explore the natural world with Animal Tails and Tales! While covering less than 6 percent of Earth's surface, rainforests are home to more than 50 percent of the world's plant and animal species. A tropical rainforest gets more than 60 inches of rain per year, although some regularly get more than 200 inches. The major areas of tropical rainforests are in South East Asia, West Africa, and South and Central America. Animals found in rainforest habitats include chimpanzees, gorillas, jaguars, snakes, parrots, and toucans.
Crafts
Print your own templates to complete rainforest animal crafts, including a Balancing Parrot or Sloth Valentine. For each craft you complete, log another hour of reading in the Tails and Tales challenge.
(If you don't have a printer at home, printed versions of one craft each month will be available at libraries. Check with your location for specific availability.)
Book lists
These book lists below highlight the natural area, the animals that live there, and the people that encounter them. Come along as we explore the Tropical Rainforests of the world!
Juvenile
- Chimpanzees by Kate Riggs Juvenile Nonfiction
- The Explorer by Katherine Rundell Juvenile Fiction
- Good Morning, Toucan by DwellStudio Board Book
- Key Hunters: The Risky Rescue by Eric Luper Juvenile Fiction
- Rain Forests by Nancy Smiler Levinson Easy Reader Nonfiction
- Rainforest by Julia Groves Juvenile Nonfiction
- Secrets of the Rain Forest: A Shine-A-Light Book by Carron Brown & Alyssa Nassner Juvenile Nonfiction
- Sloth Went by Adam Lehrhaupt Easy-Picture Book
- Tree of Wonder: The Many Marvelous Lives of a Rainforest Tree by Kate Messner Juvenile Nonfiction
- We’re Roaming in the Rainforest: An Amazon Adventure by Laurie Krebs & Anne Wilson Easy-Picture Book
Teen
- Ariel by Tiffany Grace
- Keeper by Mal Peet
- Shadow Wave by Robert Muchamore
- The Speed of Falling Objects by Nancy Richardson Fischer
Adult Fiction
- Jane: The Woman Who Loved Tarzan by Robin Maxwell
- At Play in the Fields of the Lord by Peter Mathiessen
- Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
- Lucy: A Novel by Laurence Gonzales
- State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
- The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
Adult Nonfiction
- Reflections of Eden: My Years with the Orangutans of Borneo by Biruté Marija Filomena Galdikas
- The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann
- Where the Wild Coffee Grows: The Untold Story of Coffee from the Cloud Forests of Ethiopia to your Cup by Jeff Koehler
- Searching for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in Southeast Asia by Sy Montgomery
- Bushmaster: Raymond Ditmars and the Hunt for the World’s Largest Viper by Dan Eatherley