she visits old friends and meets new ones.
"Good morning!" she says one, two, three, four times.
She stops to talk with some chatty new neighbors.
"Welcome! I live next door," Zonia sings."
She stops to talk with some chatty new neighbors.
"Welcome! I live next door," Zonia sings."
How wonderful it is to meet Zonia, who lives in the Amazon rain forest. She loves and appreciates everything about her home, spending each morning walking with purpose to visit her animal friends and enjoy the beauty of her natural surroundings. Her days are filled with delight and cheerful meetings, led by a blue morpho butterfly from place to place. As she returns home one such day, she is astonished by what she sees for the first time. She runs to her mother with sadness and a wish to help the forest that is being decimated by deforestation.
Her mother listens and offers wise advice.
"Mama, look!" Zonia says, and opens
her hands. "The forest needs help!"
her hands. "The forest needs help!"
"It is speaking to you," says Zonia's mama.
"Then I will answer." says Zonia, "as I always do."
"We all must answer."
Zonia is of Ashaninka heritage, the largest Indigenous group living in the Peruvian Amazon. Her people are striving to preserve their rain forest by working together to organize and protest the way their home is being used for profit. They remain strong and determined in the face of ignorance and threats.
Young readers will enjoy the meetings with the animals, while older readers will want to know more about the Ashaninka people, their history and their stand against those willing to destroy their land. An Ashaninka translation of the book's text is included, as well additional facts about Zonia's people and the Amazon itself. Threats to the environment are listed and include illegal logging, farming, mining, and oil and gas extraction. Finally, thumbprints of each of Zonia's animal friends, in the order of their appearance, are presented with a short list of resources for further learning to bring this glorious book to an end.
One cannot help being drawn into the book through Ms. Martinez-Neal's artwork created with 'acrylic, colored pencil, pastel, ink, and linocuts and woodcuts on handmade banana bark paper'. She was able to source the paper from a very small group of women of Chazuta who make that paper using local banana bark. Thus, the Amazon itself becomes a part of her book in this wondrous way.
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