Wonder Woman: The Rain Forest
"Wonder Woman: The Rain Forest" is a great easy reader featuring a slightly modernized, more hip version of the Amazon princess with the golden lasso and magic, silver bracelets from DC Comics. In this story, Wonder Woman single-handedly preserves the rain forest by stopping loggers from cutting down the valuable trees. She then introduces the loggers to the natives who live in and rely on the rain forest for their every need. These natives show the loggers a valuable plant that they use to cure sicknesses. Wonder Woman teaches them that by working together (the natives finding the medicinal plants and the loggers selling them for the money they need) the rain forest will be preserved and both groups will be able to live their lives.
While not a comic book reader as a child, I was an avid fan of the Wonder Woman TV show of the late 70's starring Lynda Carter. I thought Wonder Woman was a great female hero, and this book allowed me to share some of the nostalgia with my own daugher. My daughter is in first grade, and she had no trouble reading the book to me. She said she really liked the story and the fact that Wonder Woman was a hero because she got everyone to work together in the end. She was also mesmerized by the pictures of Wonder Woman using her powers to throw a bulldozer through the air and deflecting stones with her bracelets in order to stop the loggers from cutting down more of the forest.
While the plot is a bit contrived, in classic, comic book tradition, it does teach a lesson about saving the environment, working together toward a common goal, and looking at the perspectives of others. A first or second grader should be able to read the book independently, but younger kids will enjoy it being read to them as well. My three-year-old, who is fascinated by princesses, loved the story and wanted to read it over and over.
