Here Is the Southwestern Desert

by Madeleine Dunphy, Anne Coe

Overview

Despite its stark landscape and harsh climate, the Sonoran Desert teems with life. Hare, hawks, lizards, bobcats, badgers, coyote — all live among the desert’s fragrant mesquite and spiny cactus, and none can exist without the others. Madeleine Dunphy’s poetic text explores all the warm and native elements that make the American Southwest such a mystical place, while Anne Coe's stunning paintings portray the desert’s plants and animals as well as the dazzling colors reflected in the rocks and skies of the Sonoran Desert.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780988330290
Publisher:	Web of Life Children's Books
Publication date:	10/24/2012
Series:	Web of Life Children's Series , #4
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	3 - 8 Years

About the Author

Madeleine Dunphy (author) & Anne Coe (Illustrator)
Contributor residences (city, state or country if outside the US or Canada):
Madeleine Dunphy is an educational consultant who teaches children about endangered environments. She was inspired to write this book by the great diversity of life found in the Sonoran Desert.
Madeleine has written several books for chldren, including all of the books in the Here Is the ...series. She lives in Oakland, California with her husband, Chris, and their daughter, Gwendolyn. For more information about Madeleine and her books, visit her website at www.mdunphy.com.

Anne Coe lives in the Sonoran Desert, where she need only look out her window to see scenes like those portrayed in Here Is the Southwestern Desert. Anne's work is part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and has been exhibited in shows throughout the United States and Latin America. She teaches painting and drawing at Central Arizona College.

Editorial Reviews

K-Gr 2Information on the Sonoran desert is presented in a cumulative fashion la The House That Jack Built, e.g., ``Here is the lizard/who is spied by the hawk/that perches on the cactus/that is covered with spines...'' The narrative mentions and depicts eight animals and three plants; an end note shows these and other creatures in pen-and-ink drawings with a brief discussion of them and their environment. The book is beautifully designed. On each double-page spread, text appears in a narrow section on the left against a glowing earth-pink background; remaining space is filled with an acrylic painting saturated with dazzling desert light. Each spread is marked with solid borders, as though matted. Coe's dry-brush technique reveals the texture of the canvas in ways that make it look like grainy sand. One cavil: the obviously different prickly pear and saguaro are called by the same generic namecactus.Ruth Semrau, formerly at Lovejoy School, Allen, TX

School Library Journal

Dunphy's cumulative poem explores the interrelationships between the living and nonliving elements of the Sonoran Desert. Coming full circle, she begins and ends with the cactus: "Here is the cactus / that is covered with spines / and can live without rain / for a very long time." She also cites the hare, the snake, the coyote, the squirrel, the badger, the bobcat, the roadrunner, the lizard, and the hawk--all of which are interconnected with the sun, the tree, and the cactus. Coe's luminous artwork includes both panoramic backgrounds and vibrant action close-ups that will appeal to young and old alike. Although the repetition in the verses makes this a good choice for story hours, the appended information on Sonoran wildlife lends itself to primary units on the desert or the Southwest. Pair with Gail Hartman's "As the Road Runner Runs" (1994) and Gisela Jernigan's "Sonoran Seasons: A Year in the Desert" (1994).

Kay Weisman

"Dunphy's cumulative poem explores the interrelationships between the living and nonliving elements of the Sonoran Desert. ... Coe's luminous artwork includes both panoramic backgrounds and vibrant action close-ups that will appeal to young and old alike."
—Booklist

"[T]his book excels in demonstrating the interconnectedness of the various species that inhabit the Sonoran Desert."
—Horn Book

"[This] book is beautifully designed...saturated with dazzling desert light." —School Library Journal

"Here Is the Southwestern Desert is a cheerful introduction to a desert theme, or to any ecological study."
—Teaching K-8

From the Publisher