Amazon Adventure

Sy Montgomery, a Sibert Honor winner, looks at a small fish of the Amazon River called the piaba and asks how it might help protect the rainforest, the animals that live there and the people who depend on it. The book is part of the Scientists in the Field series and is illustrated with full-color photographs.

The Amazon is often described as the planet's lungs, producing roughly a fifth of its oxygen, yet human activity clears about 2.7 million acres of it each year. Project Piaba, the effort at the center of the book, looks for practical ways to reverse that damage. Montgomery and photographer Keith Ellenbogen travel along the river and through the forest to see how these tiny fish could contribute to conservation.

Along the way, the book explores how people's choices shape the Amazon and, by extension, the wider environment. It also looks at the social and economic effects the piabas have on local communities, alongside the river's ecosystems.