Coming October 14, 2025. Pre-order today!

3 Weeks in the Rainforest

A Rapid Inventory in the Amazon

By: Jennifer Swanson

What will this team find in three short weeks?

Over 22 years, a team of scientists from the Field Museum in Chicago has helped conserve 28.9 million acres of the Amazon rainforest. Follow the team as they race to gather data over three precious weeks in the field.

During rapid inventory, information is gathered in two ways:

• Biologists trek through mud and rain and count every animal and plant they see, recording everything that flies, swims, crawls, slithers, or walks. They then look at key plant and animal groups to assess the health of the ecosystem.
• Social scientists visit villages, speaking with local people about their desires and goals for the land, as each community has developed its own way of taking care of its environment.

The team then makes a compelling, evidence-based case for conservation.

Developed in partnership with the Field Museum, this action-packed book focuses on Rapid Inventory 30, conducted in Colombia with the help of local and Indigenous scientists and community members.Photographs from the scientists themselves give readers a glimpse into real-life fieldwork in the Amazon that will captivate STEM readers and the next generation of scientists.

“Rich in detail, lively, and enthralling.”

Kirkus Reviews, starred review

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Look Inside

Downloadables

Download the CoverDownload the Activity Kit

Author & Illustrator

Jennifer Swanson, author

Jennifer Swanson is a science teacher and the award-winning author of more than fifty-five nonfiction books for children, including Super Gear: Nanotechnology and Sports Team Up; Brain Games; Save the Crash-Test Dummies; and Footprints Across the Planet. An accomplished and dynamic speaker, Jennifer has presented at national NSTA conferences, the World Science Festival, and the Library of Congress’s National Book Festival. She is also the founder of KidLiteracy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving STEM literacy.

Read more about Jennifer.

Awards & Honors

• A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Cant travel to study a rainforest? Read the next best thing.
This exceptionally vivid account of field science in the Andes-Amazon region is also a sensitive appreciation of the role of local communities in planning conservation of their land. Swanson doesnt underplay the threats facing this ecosystem, but she also offers hope as she explains the work of Chicagos Field Museum. For 20 years, the museum has sent groups of scientists who, coordinating with local experts and inhabitants, conduct inventories of the area, collecting information on the wildlife and people living there; the book focuses on the inventory conducted in 2018. A map shows the destination; chapters detail the activities of the six sub-groups of scientists surveying biology, fish, plants, reptiles and amphibians, birds, and human communities. Swanson details whats involved with selecting the four study sites, including getting there, preparing campsites, and hauling supplies, followed by accounts of long and arduous but thrilling days of catching, counting, and photographing while avoiding natural and human-caused dangers. She provides specific information about the study and each site; writing in an unpretentious, conversational style, she describes how scientists preserve botanical samples, catalogue specimens, and more. Spectacular color photos of specimen close-ups, scientists and community members, and the gorgeous setting will spark excitement. Swansons conclusions about future preservation of the Amazon are optimistic but not unrealistic.
Rich in detail, lively, and enthralling.

Details

Hardcover
ISBN: 978-1-62354-316-7

Ages: 812
Page count: 80
10 x 71/2

Publication date: October 14, 2025

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