Charming books that make us dream and reflect – « Amazon Rainforest Magic, The adventures of Namowë, a Yanomami boy » and « Amazon Rainforest Magic The adventures of Meromi, a Yanomami girl » – For ages 8 to 12 to 100!  – written and illustrated by Barbara Crane Navarro – NOW ON KINDLE, TOO!

Posted on December 19, 2024 by Barbara Crane Navarro - Rainforest Art Project

illustration from « Amazon Rainforest Magic – The adventures of Namowë, a Yanomami boy »

« Elements of the natural world intertwine with the magical and otherworldly in these charming books that make us dream and reflect. 

The stories and illustrations are marvelous and truly show the beauty of the Amazon rainforest and the Yanomami culture that the author knows and loves.

Barbara Crane Navarro has a gift for sharing this beauty and reminding us that there are so many different ways to inhabit the world. »

review by Ana Maria Machado

More information about the book series is here:

“Amazon Rainforest Magic” et “La Magie de l’Amazonie” y “La Magia de la Amazonia” ESPAÑOL – ENGLISH – FRANÇAIS – Libros de aventuras fantásticas para niños – Cuentos de la vida de los Yanomami en la selva amazónica – para edades de 8 a 12

Yanomami boy’s surprise friend in the jungle!

Sometimes we miss the most beautiful moments – DON’T MISS THIS ONE! 

A 38 second film with Namowë, a Yanomami boy in the Alto Orinoco region, Amazonas, Venezuela 

Yanomami boy’s surprise friend in the jungle is an excerpt of a film by Barbara Crane Navarro of instants of daily life of a Yanomami community in the Amazon Rainforest of Venezuela made to accompany the children’s book series: “Amazon Rainforest Magic” “La Magie de l’Amazonie” and “La Magia de la Amazonia” 

photo of detail from « Amazon Rainforest Magic – The adventures of Namowë, a Yanomami boy »

I created this 13 minute 16 second film of instants of daily life of a Yanomami community in the Amazon Rainforest to accompany my children’s book series: “Amazon Rainforest Magic” “La Magie de l’Amazonie” and “La Magia de la Amazonia”

– Here’s some information for anyone wondering why this longer version of the Yanomami film, originally posted in June 2014 and viewed over 26,000 times, has recently been rated “over 18”:  The Yanomami women in the film have bare torsos and small children are unclothed, as is traditional for them. There are no scenes that could be considered in any way suggestive. These moments of Yanomami daily life are woven with illustrations from my books of the “Amazon Rainforest Magic” series, available in three languages, both volumes of which show my drawings of Yanomami women and girls with bare torsos.  

Thousands of copies of my books have been purchased for schools by a school book distribution company in Pennsylvania, U.S.A. I’ve also shown this film in schools while discussing Yanomami community life in the Amazon Rainforest for decades to acclaim by teachers, parents and students of all ages. 

I hope you enjoy it!

Amazon River turtle with butterflies drinking its tears!

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About Barbara Crane Navarro - Rainforest Art Project

I'm a French artist living near Paris. From 1968 to 1973 I studied at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island, then at the San Francisco Art Institute in San Francisco, California, for my BFA. My work for many decades has been informed and inspired by time spent with indigenous communities. Various study trips devoted to the exploration of techniques and natural pigments took me originally to the Dogon of Mali, West Africa, and subsequently to Yanomami communities in Venezuela and Brazil. Over many years, during the winters, I studied the techniques of traditional Bogolan painting. Hand woven fabric is dyed with boiled bark from the Wolo tree or crushed leaves from other trees, then painted with mud from the Niger river which oxidizes in contact with the dye. Through the Dogon and the Yanomami, my interest in the multiplicity of techniques and supports for aesthetic expression influenced my artistic practice. The voyages to the Amazon Rainforest have informed several series of paintings created while living among the Yanomami. The support used is roughly woven canvas prepared with acrylic medium then textured with a mixture of sand from the river bank and lava. This supple canvas is then rolled and transported on expeditions into the forest. They are then painted using a mixture of acrylic colors and Achiote and Genipap, the vegetal pigments used by the Yanomami for their ritual body paintings and on practical and shamanic implements. My concern for the ongoing devastation of the Amazon Rainforest has inspired my films and installation projects. Since 2005, I've created a perfomance and film project - Fire Sculpture - to bring urgent attention to Rainforest issues. To protest against the continuing destruction, I've publicly set fire to my totemic sculptures. These burning sculptures symbolize the degradation of nature and the annihilation of indigenous cultures that depend on the forest for their survival.
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