Journey into the Desert - Softcover

John Brown is a wildlife cameraman who has worked all over the world. His travels have taken him from freezing Arctic to steaming rainforest, and from tropical islands to baking-hot deserts, where he has filmed a huge variety of extraordinary wildlife.

Grade 3-6-A young narrator takes readers on a camping trip into the Sonoran Desert, which covers parts of California, Arizona, and Mexico. Chapter by chapter, the colorful photographs and clearly worded, descriptive text in this slender photo-essay describe the necessary equipment for desert camping and exploring, the flora and fauna that will be seen, the dramatic landscape, and reasons for protecting this habitat. Desert activities are revealed following a torrential rainstorm when colorful wildflowers bloom quickly and noisy spadefoot toads use the resulting puddles in order to mate. Carnivores are depicted in action, from the Gila monster with a mouthful of dripping bird eggs to the Harris's hawk standing over a freshly killed young rabbit. The various cacti and their uses are depicted, with warning given that only the barrel cactus contains drinkable water. A chapter on the damage to this fragile ecosystem and its occupants that results from increased development rounds out the book. Even the glossary terms are well written in this excellent introductory work. Older students who wish to explore the Sonoran Desert in greater detail can turn to John Alcock's Sonoran Desert Summer (Univ. of Arizona, 1990).
Pam Spencer Holley, Young Adult Literature Specialist, Virginia Beach, VA
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