Reading Response 5

The Land and Wildlife of TRPOPICAL ASIA
Author: S. Dillon Ripley and The Editors of Life
Publisher: Rhen Austell and Time Incorporated New York
ISBN: 64-209-22-571
Genre: Natural History
Location: West Texas A&M University Library







Summary: The book Tropical Asia is an amazing book which takes you on a journey though the southeastern realm, the lands of water and fire, the dominion of rain, the Great forest, and many other various aspects of life and climates that thrive here. The creatures of these lands are brought to life and hidden secrets are found that this great land of tropical Asia poses. These are the lands which the rest of the world does not know about and you will embark on a great expedition.

Personal Comments: Tropical Asia is magical place where most of the land is neither water nor land but rather mud. Meandering to the sea, Sarawaks Santubong and Salak rivers create these classic mud and mangrove environment on the lower lands. The unique creatures of tropical Asia consist from Nepenthes which is a pitcher plant that eats insects, the flying frog of Borneo which is self explanatory to the flying mystery ,the Coluogo which is the most thoroughly aerial of all gliding animals in the world. The reason why it is mysterious is because scientists don’t know and can’t find any relatives or what the origin of the animal is. Tropical Asia has so many mixtures of races and culturally different people, which the book portrays the different type of people who left their mark on this land. For example the Australoids and and Negritos are earlier inhabitants who were driven there by northern invaders. Other races and cultures as the Malays, Indians, Chinese, Arabs and finally the Europeans all came after and have made an impact in Tropical Asia. Tea is the tropical region of Asia as wine is to France and today India and Ceylon account almost 75 percent of the worlds export crop.

Suggested Use in the Classroom: This is an excellent book to teach young students about other cultures such as Southeast Asia and the how different the geography, animals, and way of life are different than living here in the states. Children at a young age as for elementary need to have the chance and opportunity to be exposed to foreign cultures and interact with activities that help them learn and not be unknown to these lands. I think a field trip to the Zoo would be an excellent way to see animals from these parts of the world and visit museums which have artifacts that depict the cultures of the people who live in Southeast Asia.