THE REAL PLACE / THE INVENTED STORY
A door into the Amazon.
The River in the Trees is set in the contemporary Mamirauá floodplain near Tefé, in the Brazilian Amazon. Its map and companion pages invite exploration of the wider region.
What is researched?
Seasonal flooding, river connections, forest habitats, animal behaviors, fish–fruit relationships and local expertise are grounded in the sources below. Older publications support the relationships described; they do not establish current population counts or describe every community.
What is invented?
Lia and Rosa are fictional guides. The small tabletop landscape, printed animal patterns, seasonal eligibility, offers and briefs are game designs, not surveyed habitat or a scientific simulation. A shared patch in two patterns does not mean two animals cooperate in nature. More recorded animals is not an ecosystem-health score.
No Indigenous identity, tradition or historical voice is assigned to this fictional cast. Real local people possess the expertise that informs this environment. The child chooses what to explore and makes their own landscape and optional record.
Art and maps
Original illustrations were created with AI and directed for this story. They interpret scenes and are not field documentation. Vector diagrams and labels control the puzzle geometry. Natural Earth supplies geographic outlines; regional river paths are schematic, with no exact basin boundary or navigation claim.
Source shelf
- Instituto Mamirauá: project areas
The protected-area setting and floodplain landscape.
- Instituto Mamirauá: Tefé
The contemporary regional place connected by river travel.
- Frutas da Floresta (2024), p. 11
Tambaqui, fruits and seed dispersal. The illustrated fruit is not a species identification.
- Pirarucu counting (2018)
Air breathing and skilled counting used in local management.
- Management course (2019)
Local fishers’ expertise and knowledge sharing.
- Mamirauá housing study (2016)
Diverse housing; the fictional house is not a claim about every community.
- How Uakari Lodge floats (2019)
A concrete example of a floating building.
- Acta Amazonica: wetland habitats
Várzea, igapó and the distinction from terra firme.
- River dolphin research (2017)
Boto and tucuxi in the region; not a current population estimate.
- Riverbank change (2025)
Erosion and sedimentation change real riverbanks.
- NASA: Amazonia experiment introduction (2002)
The Amazon as a connected river and forest system.
- Natural Earth map data
Public-domain 1:110m country outlines; rivers are schematic.