Everyone loves chocolate, right? But how many people actually know where chocolate comes from? How it’s made? Or that monkeys do their part to help this delicious sweet exist?
This delectable dessert comes from cocoa beans, which grow on cocoa trees in tropical rain forests. But those trees couldn’t survive without the help of a menagerie of rain forest critters: a pollen-sucking midge, an aphid-munching anole lizard, brain-eating coffin fly maggots—they all pitch in to help the cocoa tree survive. A secondary layer of text delves deeper into statements such as "Cocoa flowers can’t bloom without cocoa leaves . . . and maggots," explaining the interdependence of the plants and animals in the tropical rain forests. Two wise-cracking bookworms appear on every page, adding humor and further commentary, making this book accessible to readers of different ages and reading levels.
Back matter includes information about cocoa farming and rain forest preservation, as well as an author’s note.
NOMINEE
| 2017 Arizona Young Readers Award
Chocolate chip cookies.Chocolate ice cream.Moist, fudgy brownies.What makes all these desserts so delicious?Chocolate, of course.But you can’t make chocolate without . . .
. . . cocoa beans.Cocoa beans are the seeds of the cocoa tree. Cocoa treesgrow naturally in the tropical rain forests of Central andSouth America. But today farmers grow them in othertropical areas, too.To make chocolate, workers spread cocoa beans withrakes and dry them in the sun. Then they roast them ina giant oven. Later, machines smash the beans into athick paste and squeeze out the liquid to make cocoapowder. It gets mixed with a variety of ingredients tomake different kinds of chocolate.
Everyone loves chocolate, right? But how many people actually know where chocolate comes from? How it’s made? Or that monkeys do their part to help this delicious sweet exist?
This delectable dessert comes from cocoa beans, which grow on cocoa trees in tropical rain forests. But those trees couldn’t survive without the help of a menagerie of rain forest critters: a pollen-sucking midge, an aphid-munching anole lizard, brain-eating coffin fly maggots—they all pitch in to help the cocoa tree survive. A secondary layer of text delves deeper into statements such as "Cocoa flowers can’t bloom without cocoa leaves . . . and maggots," explaining the interdependence of the plants and animals in the tropical rain forests. Two wise-cracking bookworms appear on every page, adding humor and further commentary, making this book accessible to readers of different ages and reading levels.
Back matter includes information about cocoa farming and rain forest preservation, as well as an author’s note.
Awards
NOMINEE
| 2017 Arizona Young Readers Award
Excerpt
Chocolate chip cookies.Chocolate ice cream.Moist, fudgy brownies.What makes all these desserts so delicious?Chocolate, of course.But you can’t make chocolate without . . .
. . . cocoa beans.Cocoa beans are the seeds of the cocoa tree. Cocoa treesgrow naturally in the tropical rain forests of Central andSouth America. But today farmers grow them in othertropical areas, too.To make chocolate, workers spread cocoa beans withrakes and dry them in the sun. Then they roast them ina giant oven. Later, machines smash the beans into athick paste and squeeze out the liquid to make cocoapowder. It gets mixed with a variety of ingredients tomake different kinds of chocolate.
