“Even if you live far away from a rainforest, you are still more dependent on that rainforest than you might think. Take a walk around your house and you’ll probably find many household items that are products of the rainforest. Look in your fridge and you might find bananas, mangoes, avocadoes, Brazil nuts, or spices like vanilla and cinnamon. These all come from the rainforests. Some of the medicines we use when we are sick and some fuel for cars can come from the rainforests.”

I had the pleasure last year of working with the illustrations of Vanessa Waring. Along with her writing and that of Levana Saxon of Rainforest Action Network (RAN), we designed a Kids Action Toolkit for RAN’s education outreach program. For more information please visit www.rainforestheroes.com.