The Big Field: A Child's Year Under the Southern Cross

This is the charming story of a girl and the year she spends with her grandmother on a farm at the edge of the South American Atlantic Rainforest. The child is from the city, but the time she spends with her grandmother teaches her about the seasons of the Southern Hemisphere, the beauty—and the transience—of the rainforest, the plant, animal and insect life of this part of the world and of the cycles of nature, which are gently observed and explained by the child’s wise and good “Granny.”

The book is beautifully illustrated by the author, and is not only a valuable learning tool for beginning and younger readers, but is entertaining and thought-provoking as well. The child’s grandmother looks at the wonder of the Atlantic Rainforest with a wistful, slightly pensive air, as she teaches her granddaughter of the uniqueness of the rainforest and imparts to the child her love for it and all the life in it.

The days of the grandmother, the child, and the child’s very young siblings are spent walking through the forest, lying on their backs to look up at its life and magnificence, eating dinner outside, collecting seeds, learning about plants and wildlife, and, making plans to bring the forest back to the "big field" that Granny always forgets to plow.

The Big Field: A Child's Year Under the Southern Cross is a wonderful way for a child 3 to 7 years of age to experience another culture and another hemisphere in a contemplative, yet enjoyable manner. Though environmentally sensitive in its approach, the book is free of any agendas—as it seeks only to educate and entertain its readers regarding the marvel of nature. It contains an illustrated, child-friendly glossary whose sections are dedicated to butterflies and moths, birds, bugs, and trees and plants.