DESERT JUNGLE

A child learns greater appreciation for the previously ignored desert around him after a coyote steals his backpack—and his gaming tablet.

Inspired, she writes, by a long research trip to the Sonoran Desert’s Valle de los Cirios, located in Arizona and Baja California, and by studies indicating that deserts are actually richer in pollinator diversity than rainforests, Baker carpets the rocky, sandy landscapes in her beautiful low-relief collage illustrations with realistically detailed ocotillo, cholla, and other succulents. So dense is the vegetation that a young narrator briefly loses his way after wandering off in search of the backpack he had left outside his grandfather’s ranch house. Left with nothing better to do, he begins exploring—encountering local flora and fauna, collecting small mementos, and, climactically, sharing a cave with a coyote when a sudden storm blows up. And though the cave is empty when he returns, his grandpa claims that the animal is still there…pointing to an ancient image painted on the wall. From then on, even after he goes back to his village, the child’s newly kindled love of his land’s wonders remains. The author adds thoughts about how more and more children are subject to “nature-deficit disorder,” an indifference to the natural world caused by isolation from, and ignorance of, the plants and animals around them. As this profoundly stirring tale hints, connection is the only cure. Both characters present Latine. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Rich in sights and insights alike.