One Day in the Desert

By Jean Craighead George

Book Overview

'A wounded mountain lion moves from his mountain habitat to a Papago Indian hut in Arizona's Sonoran desert during a record-breaking July day. All creation adapts to the blistering heat until a cloudburst causes a flash flood. With a measured yet vivid style, this introduction to desert ecology makes a memorable impact. --SLJ.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0064420388
• ISBN13: 9780064420389
• Release Date: April 1996
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.1" x 7.6"
• Age Range: 6 to 10 years
• Grade Range: Grades 1 to 5

Customer Reviews

A good way to teach science to children

This books teaches people about the desert plants and animals as well as the climate. The real life and death struggle for survival is most intense at the edge of where life can survive. The result is some evolutionary marvels like toads and cute kangaroo rats. As short and too the point as this book is, I liked it.

A dramatic look into an otherworldly environment

Naturalist Jean Craighead George introduces us to the world of the mountain lion, the road runner, the cactus, the kangaroo rat, the ringtailed cat, the swift fox, the elf owl, the coyote, and the bombadier beetle in this book as she did wolves and caribou in JULIE OF THE WOLVES and peregrine falcons in MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. A young Papago Indian girl named Bird Wing and her mother live in Arizona's Sonoran Desert. This usually arid place is about to fall victim to a terrible thunderstorm and a flash flood. Bird Wing and all the animals of the desert struggle to find shelter before the flood. Some will survive--and some will not. This is a beautiful story about the close connection between human beings and all living things, and the unpredictable ways of nature. Other books in the ONE DAY series that include exciting natural disasters are ONE DAY IN THE ALPINE TUNDRA and ONE DAY IN THE PRAIRIE. There is also the fascinating ONE DAY IN THE WOODS and ONE DAY IN THE TROPICAL RAIN FOREST. And don't forget Jean Craighead George's 80+ stories about nature, like The Thirteen Moons series and THERE'S AN OWL IN THE SHOWER.

Introducing young readers to the desert world

Yet another wonderful book by an author very much in tune with nature and ecological concerns. She teaches while she entertains. Having lived in the region portrayed in this book, it became a gift to young friends back in Minnesota to introduce them to a COMPLETELY different world. Yielded fun discussion and comparison. They wondered at and enjoyed it very much!