Zonia's Rain Forest

Martinez-Neal tells a story that is both joyous and cautionary in her first solo piece since the Caldecott Honor–winning Alma and How She Got Her Name (2018). Martinez-Neal’s rounded, soft-textured images, including linocut and woodcut leaves and fronds printed on natural banana-bark paper, are very appealing. Zonia glows in her marigold tunic among these different greens, as do many of the warmly or vividly colored animal pals she encounters. Young readers will love spotting the blue butterfly in each spread and learning the names of the rain forest critters, which are provided in the back matter. The language is restricted to two short phrases per double-page spread to depict Zonia’s simple and naive vision of the world, which is shattered when she trips. A heartfelt, visually stunning picture book about a young girl’s day of play and adventure in the lush Amazon rain forest of Peru.