Crafts for Kids Who Are Wild About Rainforests

September 1, 1997
Gr 2-5-Using such recyclables and readily available materials as pipe cleaners, plastic bottles, Styrofoam trays, clothespins, oatmeal boxes, toilet-paper rolls, and old socks and neckties, Ross proffers such projects as "Magnified Bugs," "Lucky Ladybug Necklace," and "Butterfly Lapel Pin" (Insects); "Tree Frog Beanbag," "Howling Howler Monkey Mask," and "Spider Monkey Mobile" (Rainforests). Most instructive and/or effective of the lot are "Rainforest Layers" (a terrariumlike model in a jar) and "Butterfly Metamorphosis" (an egg-carton model of the four stages); but, for the most part, information is minimal, and standards of authenticity casual, at best. (The author writes: "You can add more details to your projects or give them more accurate coloring by looking for pictures and more information on the plants and animals you make.") As arts-and-crafts activities, these have little merit; the process is too often time- and labor-intensive, and the product is generally uninspired and unrewarding. Even where rainforest and/or insect projects are in demand, these books will be of limited use. Extra copies of Dorothy Hinshaw Patent's Children Save the Rain Forest (Cobblehill, 1996) and Angela Wilkes's My First Green Book (Knopf, 1991; o.p.) will stand readers in better stead.-Marcia Hupp, Mamaroneck Public Library, NY