Adventures of Riley: Amazon River Rescue
Amanda Lumry & Laura Hurwitz
Illustrations by Sarah McIntyre

Review by Alyce Wilson

Amazon River Rescue is clearly part of a series of books aimed at slightly older children. They are scientific explorations combining a story with scientific facts.

This particular one focused on the rainforest, and in this one Riley is invited by his uncle to visit his aunt, uncle and niece in the Brazilian rainforest, where his uncle and aunt are engaged in scientific studies.

Riley and his cousin, Alice, run off and get themselves lost, encountering a number of rainforest animals along the way.

The scientific facts are presented in an interesting way, as little boxes. In addition to the facts, included in the box are drawings of the actual real-life scientists who provided that information. This gives the information more authority.

The illustrations are beautifully done: bright and colorful with clean lines. Photographs are incorporated of the animals that are actually named so that there can be no confusion about what the animals really look like. The illustrator managed to blend the drawings with the photographs well, which is difficult to do.

In the back of the book is a passport which the child can pull out. It has places inside for them to place stickers from the different adventures in the series. They can also join the web site, where they can extra perks sent to them in the mail.

The only thing that could have been improved is that the story could have been stronger. Aside from giving them an excuse to encounter the different animals, the story was secondary. Older children might expect more of an adventure, with a little more excitement.

If the other books in this series are like this one, it seems a good way to introduce children to science and nature. Even better, portions of the proceeds benefit the Smithsonian Institution, the World Wildlife Fund and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Eaglemont Press , 2004: ISBN 0966225791