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story identification - Book about a boy that controls plants by whistling?


I am trying to remember the name of a fiction book about a boy that could manipulate plants just by whistling. I think it's a bit of an older book, but I can't seem to find it by searching for those terms. If it helps at all I think the title had something about green in it, but I can't be certain. Does anyone have any idea what it is?


I seem to recall that the book was probably close to 20 years old when I read it and that was nearly 10-12 years ago. The boy first realized he could manipulate plants by using a toy whistle and moved on to being able to make the noises to control the plants with his tongue. I remember that there was some kind of conflict with bad people and he used his ability to fight them and I think it was in a jungle. I think he made one of the bad guys bite off his own tongue by hitting him with a vine. It was in English and a soft cover I believe.



Answer



Green Thumb by Rob Thomas. Found it by searching for site:goodreads.com boy plants whistling which led me to this guy looking for the same book who mentions whistling and plants.


Green Thumb - book cover



Thirteen-year-old genius Grady Jacobs thinks junior high is a snore. His radical science experiments have earned him plenty of national awards, but not a lot of friends. So when an invitation comes to join the famous scientist, Dr. Carter, in the Brazilian rain forest, Grady is on the next plane to the Amazon. But Grady's ultimate field trip turns ultimately awful when he discovers what Dr. Carter is really up to: he isn't there to save the rain forest -- he is there to destroy it! Can one eight-grade science whiz put a stop to Dr. Carter's evil plans? He can when he is joined by the Urah-Wau tribe of Indians and a supernatural power that no amount of science can ever explain.




Google Books shows a few references to him controlling the genetically modified trees with whistling:



I whistle on my lit-zi as he coils to jump again. The tree's branches bend up with all the flexibility possible. The bananas are safely out of his reach.



There is a chief who is missing his tongue, although I can't quite figure out how he lost it (it shows up in a bag). The main villain is caught by grabbing them with vines and threatening them with the poisonous fruit on the trees.


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