Display: Desert Reads

The Night Flower
By Lara Hawthorne

As the summer sets over the desert, creatures gather for a very special event. The saguaro cactus is about to bloom. Join pollinating fruit bats, howling mice, and other animals on their journey to visit the flower in this beautiful nature-inspired story.

Hoot and Howl Across the Desert: Life in the World's Driest Deserts
By Vassiliki Tzomaka

Discover the remarkable plants and animals that live in the world's driest climates -- both hot and cold! With beautifully illustrated landscapes, this book proves just how much life exists in the world's deserts. Travel around the globe and encounter hundreds of rare and little-known plants and animals that thrive in dry environments.

Who Needs a Desert?: A Desert Ecosystem
By Karen Patkau

Describes creatures as well as ecological features and includes fact-filled notes, a useful glossary, and comprehensive mappages.

Joshua Tree National Park
By Jodie Shepherd

Young readers will love exploring Joshua Tree National Park where the oldest rocks are about 1.7 billion years old! They'll also enjoy discovering the park's plants, animals, and other landforms -- all in the pages of this fun and fascinating book.

I've Got Eyes!: Exceptional Eyes of the Animal World
By Julie Murphy

Animals in varied habitats describe unique features of their eyes and how they are adapted for the jungle, the deep ocean, the desert, and even the dark. From bulging eyes to hiding eyes, handlebar eyes to double-decker eyes, young readers will learn about the diversity of the animal world in this nonfiction picture book.

Dig, Wait, Listen: A Desert Toad's Tale
By April Pulley Sayre
Illustrated by Barbara Bash

A spadefoot toad waits under the sand for the rain, hears the sounds of other desert animals, and eventually mates and spawns other toads.

Over on a Desert: Somewhere in the World
By Marianne Collins Berkes

A counting book in rhyme that presents various animals and their offspring that dwell in desert environments around the world, from a mother camel and "her little calf one" to a father fennec fox and "his little kits ten."

Coyote Raid in Cactus Canyon
By Jim Arnosky

Four young coyotes harass the animals in a desert canyon until they run into a rattlesnake.

Survival at 120 Above
By Debbie S. Miller
Illustrated by Jon Van Zyle

Introduces the variety of animals who call the Australian Simpson Desert home and shows how they have adapted to survive extreme temperatures.

Comments

Funny Farm by Mark Teague 2009

There are things I liked about Mark Teague's newest book, Funny Farm , and things I didn't like. Where should I start? I'll do the "didn'ts" first. The illustrations show animals personified. Well, some of the animals are. The main characters, Edward, and his farm family relatives, all dogs, are humanized. They stand upright, do farm chores, eat at a table, wear clothes, knit (yes, with paws) and sleep in beds. Most everybody else on and around the farm, who are also animals, act like animals. They are outside, roll in mud, live in the barn, and require care from their owners. It struck me the most on the page spread where there are pigs playing in puddle in the rain and Edward, a black and white boxer, watches from inside the house. I thought "You're a dog! Go play with them!" But, alas, he can't, seeing as how he goes through his entire visit to the farm wearing a suit and red bow tie. Another picture that bothered me was the maple syrup pa...

Review: Super Boba Cafe

Super Boba Café By Nidhi Chanani New York: Amulet Books, 2023. Comics. 215 pages. 14-year-old Aria is excited to spend her summer in San Francisco getting quality time with her Nainai. She loves helping at her grandmother's Super Boba Café. But she can't help but notice that her grandmother is acting strange and secretive. She refuses to let Aria into the kitchen at all and she disappears at the same time each night without telling Aria where she goes. Meanwhile, Aria is eager to drum up more business for Super Boba Café. She gets a major windfall when the shop cat, Bao, surprises them by having kittens, and Aria realizes this is a major social media opportunity. She knows this will help Nainai's shop, but she is apprehensive to get back on social media after a terrible cyberbullying experience she had back home. As the shop starts to get busier, Nainai is more and more anxious about her secret project. This prompts Aria to investigate with help from her Nainai's neighb...

Plain Kate

Plain Kate by Erin Bow Scholastic, 2010. 314 pgs. Fiction Katerina Svetlana is named after her mother, who died giving birth. Her father, Piotr the woodcarver, calls her plain Kate and she is soon known as Plain Kate, after the butcher's witticism, because she is "plain as a stick." But her father calls her Kate, my star. Piotr teaches his daughter to carve and she is on her way to becoming a master when her father dies of a strange sleeping sickness that plagues her town and the country round about. In a magical land, Kate has no magic but her skill. Still, she is so good her neighbors think her a witch and drive her away, but not before a real witch comes along and she trades him her shadow for the promise that she won't have to travel alone. He gives her a talking cat. Kate falls in with gypsies who also find reason to hurt and abandon her and she is rescued by the witch who takes her upriver in a terrible quest to avenge his dead sister and bring her back from...

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