Picture Book 1

Picture book 1: The Umbrella by Jan Brett
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Date published 2004
ISBN number: 0-399-24215-5














I loved this picture book when I was young.  The setting is a cloud rain forest in Costa Rica.  I have always been really interested in animals and loved to find out about less familiar animals, and in Costa Rica there are animals not well known.  There is a cat-like creature called a Kinkajou, there is a little pig- like animal called a tapir, and there are many exotic birds and frog species.  This book is so special because it includes all of these interesting and relatively unknown species.  Jan Brett’s books are always full of art work. Butt this one is truly incredible. 
The story starts out with a little boy named Carlos, who is going into the cloud forest to look for animals.  He wants to spot a jaguar, a monkey, a toucan, a kinkajou, and a tapir.  The names of these animals are repeated throughout the story so that young readers will become familiar with them.  For every two pages in the book there is a spread of a beautiful picture of the rainforest.  There are also two extra pictures enclosed in a leaf on each page that foreshadow the next page.  It is hard to explain except that there is a lot to look at on each page.  Jan Brett does such a good job with details on every tree, and the animals are drawn in such detail with beautiful colors.  The story progresses as Carlos goes into the forest with an umbrella, then climbs a tree to look for animals.  The irony is that all the animals he wants to see end up in his umbrella, which he left on the forest floor.  First a tiny tree frog goes into his umbrella.  Each animal says something in Spanish that is followed by the English translation.  As the story progresses the toucan, kinkajou, the baby tapir, a quetzal bird, a capuchin monkey, and jaguar all end up in the umbrella and in the river.  Then a tiny humming bird lands on the top of the umbrella, and just like the straw that broke the camel’s back, the umbrella tips over and all the animals fall into the river.  Jan Brett repeats the animal names over and over, which makes it a fun read aloud.  Alas, Carlos climbs down the tree, never realizing that all the animals he wants to see are actually watching him.  Eventually the tree frog hitches a ride on top of the umbrella and Carlos takes him home.  The story ends with the frog in the umbrella in a small puddle.  One the back page, there is a picture of the rain forest with all the animals peeking out.  A young child would enjoy searching for all the hidden animals.

 It is beautifully drawn, and is great for read aloud and the repetition makes its good for children to begin to read.  The story is funny, and a great way to introduce young children to the rainforest.  Anyone who has read The Mitten also by Jan Brett will also see a similar story with animals crawling into a mitten left by a boy in a snowy area, The Umbrella is in many ways a tropical rainforest version of The Mitten.