West Coast Wild Rainforest

Written by Deborah Hodge

Illustrated by Karen Reczuch

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-839-8

44 pp.

Ages 3+

March 2024

 

Each time I read a book in Deborah Hodge and Karen Reczuch's West Coast Wild series (see the list below), I am transported to the Pacific Northwest to visit the forests, coasts, waters, and mountains. I get to stand under majestic conifers and watch animals play. With West Coast Wild Rainforest, Deborah Hodge and Karen Reczuch lead us into the temperate rainforest and show us the wonders within.

From West Coast Wild Rainforest, text by Deborah Hodge, illus. by Karen Reczuch

Our walk through the rainforest begins with the rain and its role in keeping the forest growing and the fires away. In addition to those multi-storeyed trees, Deborah Hodge introduces readers to mosses, lichens, and other vegetation of the undergrowth. That lush forest is perfect for making a home, and there is much discussion about the relationship between Douglas squirrels and the trees which provide them with shelter and food, and which the squirrels inadvertently replant.

From West Coast Wild Rainforest, text by Deborah Hodge, illus. by Karen Reczuch

In each part of the rainforest, there is life, and the cycles that happen with that life. There are the streams where young salmon hatch. Later they will return to spawn in these same streams, and then become food for the bears, wolves, and eagles, with leftovers fertilizing the forest.

In this wonderful cycle of nature, the trees protect the salmon and the salmon feed the trees. 

From West Coast Wild Rainforest, text by Deborah Hodge, illus. by Karen Reczuch

As the natural cycles of the forest are revealed, more animals are introduced, from black bears and bald eagles, to gray wolves, black-tailed deer, western screech-owls, chest-backed chickadees, and banana slugs. Everything has a place and a purpose, and together they help the forest to grow and thrive and nurture others.

West Coast Wild Rainforest is a lovely walk through a unique biome that defines one part of Canada. For those on the West Coast, this book will be a literary hike to see and smell and feel a complex of ecosystems that encompass vegetation, water, land, and animals. For the many readers who may never have the opportunity to visit British Columbia and its coastal areas, West Coast Wild Rainforest entreats us to do the same but teaches with Deborah Hodge's text and beguiles with Karen Reczuch's watercolour and pencil artwork. This is an opportunity to learn and to be present in a luxuriant biome unique to our Pacific coast. By telling a story with a scientific basis, Deborah Hodge's words show a reverence to the Pacific rainforest without dulling the learning with endless details. And with  Karen Reczuch's illustrations, depicted with realism and profound awe for the landscape and biota of this area, West Coast Wild Rainforest will reach many young, and older, readers and entrap them in the beauty of the Pacific coastal rainforest and fascinate them with its teeming life.

🌲•🌲• 🌲•🌲•🌲

 

West Coast Wild series

 West Coast Wild (2015)

West Coast Wild Babies (2020)

West Coast Wild ABC (2022)

West Coast Wild At Low Tide (2022)

West Coast Wild Rainforest (2024)

West Coast Wild Baby Animals (coming May 2024)