THE STORY OF ROSY DOCK

An Australian desert, unchanged for thousands of years, undergoes a transformation that powerfully evokes the interrelationship of all things. Rosy dock, a plant from North Africa or western Asia brought in by settlers, is first planted in a neatly fenced garden in front of a tin shack. Swept up in a dust storm (along with a straw hat), the red seeds are blown across the sun-baked landscape and bloom in hidden desert oases. A storm floods a dry river bed; as the waters rise, a lizard clings to the steamer truck that once sat outside the tin shack. The trunk ends up half-submerged in the ground as the desert blooms into a breathtaking life—a carpet of flowers that subsequently includes the newcomer rosy dock—before turning back to sand and bleached bones. Baker's riveting collages dazzle the eyes and reward close examination; a note at the end reveals how the introduction of nonnative plants and animals into a landscape always has consequences, whether a pleasure or pox. (Picture book/nonfiction. 4-8)