A DAY IN THE LIFE OF THE DESERT

Arid ecosystems harbor a variety of interdependent creatures, but these Southwestern habitats face serious pressures.

Munro, whose Dive In (2020) invited readers to explore coral reefs, returns to—very—dry land with an enticing tour of several North American deserts: the Sonoran Desert, the Mojave Desert (with additional attention to Death Valley), the Great Basin Desert, the Chihuahuan Desert, and the Painted Desert. An opening map sets the stage. An introduction makes the point that though deserts are dry and often hot, they’re not uninhabitable. Twelve scenes, pictured over a 24-hour period, offer readers opportunities to discover inhabitants of each desert with challenging seek-and-find puzzles. Explanatory text runs across the bottom quarter of each spread describing weather, typical plant life, some geological features, and some threats to each habitat. A small box lists the numbers and names of various creatures pictured. Readers will have to look carefully: Some are very small and may be partially concealed! The following pages provide answer keys to the search-and-finds and further information about each of the six habitats. In conclusion, Munro suggests ways readers can help these fragile habitats. Munro’s acrylic paintings, outlined in ink, convey the different senses of each place and time effectively through light and color, and the creatures are recognizable though not always to scale. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A solid, geographically specific introduction to desert communities—and how we can protect them.