Amazon Category:  Action/Thriller Publisher: Philomel ISBN-10:  0399227652 Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 32 Copyright: Mar 1 1996 A lavish introduction to the Sonora desert and its wildlife brings readers into the beautiful and mysterious world of speckled road runners, ocelots, green lizards, mountain lions, and coyotes. The desert is full of surprises. This sea of sand is a hot sea, a dry sea, a rock and stone and sky sea. There's a wash of blue sky, the splash of terra-cotta sunrise, a scuttle of tarantulas, a muddle of centipedes. After rain comes a burst of color, with the spray of ocotillo, the play of poppies in a field, the long green fingers of misquite. And this is not a silent sea, for coyotes, gilas, spadefoot toads, and many other creatures make their voices heard. Poetic, evocative text and dramatic, colorful pictures together bring the extraordinary world of the desert to brilliant life. Excerpt But this sandscape is not just a tan scape! It's a wash of blue sky, the splash of terra-cotta sunrise, the dash of a speckled roadrunner,...

Booklist
Age 5-8. Words and pictures on the opening page portray the desert as an ocean of sand and rocks, but the remainder of this book shows another side of the desert, one teeming with life: "a cache of kangaroo rats busy in their burrows, a scuttle of tarantulas, a muddle of centipedes." The climax comes after a rainfall, when flowers burst into bloom and Yolen begins naming some of the desert's sounds, and the book draws to a close with another desert landscape that shows not only sand and rocks but also plants and animals. Regan's paintings are a perfect match for Yolen's poem, and her skillful use of greens, browns, and grays will help children appreciate books illustrated with more subtle colors. A good companion to the author and illustrator's Welcome to the Green House (1993). Susan Dove Lempke

Horn Book
In lively verse, Yolen introduces the Sonora Desert's rich variety of flora and fauna, disabusing readers of any misapprehension that the desert is merely sand. A brief note at the end adds some factual information. Regan's paintings are beautiful, dramatic double-page spreads that capture the life of this unique landscape. -- Copyright © 1996 The Horn Book, Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
K-Gr 4-A poetic narrative that invites readers into Arizona's Sonora Desert through a collaboration of art and words, and gives a comfortable armchair tour of a beautiful, rugged, surprisingly varied place. Regan's artwork starts and ends with a panoramic scene, and in between it brings children in for close-up views that are almost photographic in their realism. Yolen paints just as inviting a picture as she chooses words that simultaneously describe and establish a rhythm of their own. She speaks of "a huddle of ocelots at noon/ in the shadow of a cave,/ a slither of green lizards,/ the dither of butterflies." The surprising variety of wildlife, weather, and conditions in this sea of sand will give young readers a new look at a place they might have thought dry and barren. This book celebrates the Sonora Desert in the same way Regan and Yolen celebrated the rain forest in Welcome to the Greenhouse (Putnam, 1993). A short note in the back provides more information about the desert and some creatures depicted in the illustrations but not identified in the text.-Jane Marino, Scarsdale Public Library, NY