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LET'S GO TO THE DESERT by Harriet E. Huntington

LET'S GO TO THE DESERT

By

Publisher: Doubleday

This doesn't measure up to the predecessors,- Let's Go to the Seashore and Let's Go Outdoors, both of which have had substantial success. In the first place, the subject matter touches fewer children at familiar points of recognition, and the names- both of animals and natural life or growing things, are difficult for any children not brought up in the desert areas of the southwest. For prospective visitors, this should provide an excellent introduction, and second and third grade readers will find the short sentences and easy descriptive words, accompanying each photograph, easy reading once the unfamiliar nouns are mastered. The formation of the land, the descriptions of plant and animal life, give one a sense of the region itself. Even the brown tone of photographs and type seem to reflect the hazy brilliance of sun on sand; as one sees it from train windows. But, unfortunately, it lends the book itself a certain drabness. Sturdily bound in cloth, this should survive a westward trip. There might well be a plus sale for this in school libraries, where need for desert material as supplementary reading in the 8 to 10 level is still expressed.