by Moe Zilla

Created on: May 20, 2010

"Carlos walks into the cloud forest. How silent it is…"

It may be Jan Brett's most socially-relevant book. The "cloud forest" is, of course, a moist tropical forest near the home of a Costa Rican boy named Little Carlos. He brags cheerily to his Papa about all the animals he'll see today - a jaguar, a monkey, a toucan and a kinkajou. And all the animals finally give Brett something realistic to draw with her lavish illustrations.

Little Carlos travels with an enormous umbrella that made entirely out of palm fronds. He sets it at the base of a tree when he climbs up to watch for hidden animals. In a funny twist, a puddle of water forms in the upside-down umbrella, and adorable tree frog decides to slip in for a swim. "'Hola', Froggy croaks happily. 'I have this puddle all to myself."

Brett's written several books about children in exotic settings who get surprised by a cluster of real animals that were gradually attracted by an article of clothing. (There's The Mitten, The Hat, and now she's written The Umbrella.)  The story falls into the familiar pattern, but this time it seems even more unlikely than usual. A fig falls into the overturned umbrella, which attracts a hungry toucan, and soon a kinkajou has stumbled by, and then a baby tapir looking for its mother.

"No esta aqui!" shouts the exasperated frog. "She's not here." (Yes, the book also teaches its young readers some Spanish.)

The previous year, Jan Brett tried setting one of her popular animal stories in China -  "Daisy Comes Home." It must've been a refreshing experience for the author, who's built a reputation over the last few decades for intricate illustrations. Each book includes extra illustrations on the sides of either page, giving readers a fun extra glimpse at what the other characters are doing. In this book, all the illustrations are surrounded by a frame of vines, and those side illustrations take the shape of a leaf!

Eventually there's a colorful quetzal bird in the umbrella, and then a frisky monkey tosses them all into the river. A jaguar pounces on the floating menagerie - and honestly, it looks like it was difficult to draw. But the book does culminate with a funny joke: that the little boy never does see the animals he was looking for…even though they all took a wild ride in his umbrella!

Brett does do a wonderful job of suggesting all of the natural splendor. ("The only sound is the drip, drip, drip of drops falling from the tall trees," she says on the book's second page.) The author-illustrator actually explored the Monteverde Cloud Forest in Costa Rica to prepare for drawing all this forest's animals - and for inspiration. And her experience in the real tropical forest seems to match the magical happenings that appear in some of her stories - and certainly in this one.

"Birds and animals appear and disappear as if seen through a kaleidoscope…"

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
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