I'VE ALWAYS BEEN ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO GOES STRAIGHT TO THE FICTION ISLES IN A BOOKSTORE. BUT, WHEN A FRIEND OF MINE SUGGESTED I READ RICHARD CHESS' "CHAIR IN THE DESERT", I RELUCTANTLY TOOK HER ADVICE, AND HAVE SINCE HAD A CHANGE OF HEART. CHESS' WORKS, INCLUDING MY FAVORITES, "LEVITICUS FOR DAUGHTERS" AND "I AND THOU BABY" APPROACH TWENTY FIRST CENTURY ISSUES GARNISHED WITH AN OLD TESTAMENT LORE. THE REAL LIFE EXPERIENCES SKILLFULLY DEPICTED BY THE POET IN THIS COLLECTION LEAVE THE READER DEEPLY SATISFIED, AND YET BEGGING FOR MORE. DUE TO "CHAIR IN THE DESERT", I AM ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO GOES STRAIGHT TO THE FICTION AISLES...BECAUSE THAT'S THE QUICKEST WAY TO THE POETRY.

First off -- I'm far more comfortable reading box scores than I am poetry. But "Chair In the Desert" is a good read; intellectually challenging and enlightening, which I suppose good poetry is meant to be. While Mr. Chess uses the template of his Jewish experiences as a focus, the poems are global in theme. Anyone who has a teenage child, or was ever a teenager themselves, will appreciate "Leviticus for Daughters". Many of the poems have a meter that sounds like chants one might have heard take place in synagogues and houses of learning centuries ago.

Correctamundo!: Prickly Pete's Guide To Desert Facts & Catifracts separates desert facts from "cactifracts", that is, things lots of kids think are true about the desert but are not factual. Lively, fun, educational, and highly recommended for both school and community library collections, Correctamundo! will provide young readers ages 8 to 12 with a splendid and entertaining introduction to the flora and fauna of the desert.

Both of my children (ages 5 and 7) and I love this book. It is well written, amusing, creative and informative. The format is fun and inventive -- Prickly Pete (a packrat) makes a series of statments about desert creatures and then asks the readers guess whether each one is a fact or a "cactifract"(untrue), before turning the page to find the correct answer. My children love guessing and learning whether they were right. I recommend it for its entertainment value as well as for the information it contains about the natural hsitory of the desert.

What a wonderful learning experience. With beautifully illustrated scenes of desert life, a perfect way to introduce children to the experience....the lifelike illustrations jump out at you with their canny true to life realism.

This book is not just A - apple, B - ball. It gives detailed descriptions of plants and animals in the desert. This is a great book to read if you want to find out a liitle bit about the desert. I would recommend this book to anyone over the age of 4.

Well,I had heard of this book before I saw it in a local bookstore,but I thought it wouldn`t be good,as the desert book "Western Horizon" was said to be better.
But I was wrong at this time. Already when I first looked inside it,I knew it would be amazingly suggestive for me. And I bought it. It was rather cheap for beeing such a book.
It features all kinds of deserted landscape from the US.
Some times,it doesn`t look much like desert,mostly in the Mojave,which the first chapter is about. Deserts are not at all lifeless places - in fact,it is full of wild palms,beautifull flowers and cacti with artistic shapes.
The second chapter treats the Sonoran Desert,and it,too,contains more of the diverse flora,especially the red cactus flowers.
In the third chapter,called Colorado Desert - Life on the Rocks,there are lots of such pictures too,but there is one special image that catches your attention immidiatley - pressure ridges in a salt pan,which looks like the finest crystals ever found!
The fourth chapter shows other kinds of desert. For you who like rocky deserts,this is something. It has fantastic sceneries from hundreds of feet high rocks,as well as a picture of dunes with white sand. That is the most lifeless of all deserts and the quietness is sometimes even frightening.
The fifth chapter is about The Great Basin Desert,and that is the largest desert of North America. Many pics in this chapter contains really fantastic views,and you`ll even find SNOW here!In a desert!Just amazin,isn`t it?Some of the most inspiring pictures are found here,and therefore,this is my favorite chapter. The special with those pictures are the mud formations at dusk.
The sixth chapter is "Painted Desert",which is also very inspiring,and here there are some pictures of the Colorado Plateau,which is fantastic rock formations where fossils of my favorite animals can be found (dinosaurs!). Many of the formations here are well-known from Western Movies. In this chapter,amazing pictures of Grand Canyon can be found as well.
I have now realized that this is my No.1 inspiration source for my animal stories. When I am drawing them,I am always looking at pictures of this book to find a suitable background for my dinosaurs. I am combining the best pictures. And then it is just to add the dinos. When I read this book,I pretend that I am trying to create a good dinosaur movie when looking at the pictures. It is incredibly inspiring,and ABSOLUTELY something for anyone who likes painting or look at landscapes.
You could spend (money) for "The Western Horizon" or (less) for this one. The choice is up to you. But I have made mine. Get inspired and save a lot of money by buying this one!

Jeff Gnass and John Murray have managed to convey with in the pages of this wonderful book the incredibly diverse and colorful landscapes that makeup the desert regions of the south western United States. Their photographic images are with out a doubt some of the best ever put to film. Tne text is entertaining as well with personal insights relating to visiting a particular area photographed. I never grow tired of looking at the images- they are as close as you can get without actually being there. Highly recommended for lovers of the desert regions or for those that would like to experience them but cannot get there.

In this age of high technology in all fields the average person is aware of both the ravages of cancer and of the remarkable cures which give heart to the public at large as well as to the medical profession. Sharon Wanslee's book is not really about cancer but about the wonderfully full life which is possible to be lived by the long term cancer patient. Ms. Wanslee's book is lively and easily read. She is honest and unafraid to share her journey...not only the pain and fear, but also the hope and joy of her remarkable life. There are dark momments, but so many, many times of delight and joy. I believe this book will be an inspiration for all its readers.

Although this book is primarily about cancer and cancer recovery, Ms. Wanslee's memoirs transcend illness -- this book is a triumph of the human spirit. I would compare it to William Styron's "Darkness Visible," his memoirs of depression so deep it nearly killed him. In this book, Ms. Wanslee's love and spirit glow on each page -- her voice is strong and deep and her compassion for others who are ill is simply overwhelming. It is a must for anyone with cancer or with any other serious disease. And it is a must for their families and, friends -- and anyone who cares and loves others in this world. I think this is an instant classic -- a memoir so pure and clear it deserves a special place in the heart -- It echoes with laughter, sadness, tragedy, deep spirituality, joy and every human emotion in between.

I read this book as a bedtime story for my young son. The text flows nicely and the pictures are soothing and natural. He usually asks to read it again when we're finished, sometimes a third time. I think he has been dreaming about being in the desert in the pictures.

This book has very good illustrations of the typical American desert animals (gila monster, jackrabbit, etc.) My six-year old has requested it every night for the past week. I tried it out on a cub scout group yesterday, and they were rapt at attention. Their favorite is "find the hidden animal." I recommend it.

This is a wonderful book to own, both for the enjoyment of the art and to read and know more about Maynard Dixon. I am an aspiring watercolor painter myself and a lover of Western art. Several years ago I noted the stunning art work on the cover of the western Novel "The Streets of Laredo" in the Lonesome Dove series of books. I had no idea at the time who Maynard Dixon was, but I couldn't forget the image of the desert and the sky making the figures on horseback appear so small and fragile. This book provides so many great pictures, including my book cover, and it is also a fine biography of an inspiring life. If you like Western art, this might be described as a bridge between Remington and Russell and Edward Hopper. I know this is probably not technically a valid observation, but I think it the best way that I can describe Maynard Dixon's work.

If you've seen other books on Maynard Dixon, as I have, they will usually have strength more in one point rather than all points. For example: his landscapes, Indians, or pencil drawings. This is good but it would require another book to get satisfation on say "landscapes" if your book is on Indians or "Indians" if it's on landscapes! Desert Dream is a balanced, indepth and updated book that combines and augments all the previous books on Maynard Dixon that I have seen.

But it also does something more than tell us about an important, underrated American nationalists in the fine arts; Desert Dreams reveals in the first page the post world war II mentality that took over in the teaching of fine arts in 1946 which quite effectively eliminated the stature of native influenced Americans such as Maynard Dixon to whom Europe was not the panecea for himself as an artist or a man who thought deeply about art. In otherwords, the deliberate internationalization of art history in America has ill served the national appreciation of "cultural nationalism" within the context of fine arts in this country.

This small point is pregnant with implications.

At nearly 300 pages, the price is a real bargain!

What I also enjoyed about this book is the man himself and how unashamed he was to paint this country. It's land. It's people with an individualism that not only built his character but also builds countries, and sustains them as well.

As the husband of Dorethea Lange, it is unfortunate that his name is less well known than her's considering his place in California as an artist. Today, I cannot think any artist that could wear the mantle he did, from about 1900 until his death in1946, as California's most famous artist.

Color reproductions give a form and substance to this man and his art that is hard to come by otherwise, and this is due to the depth of Maynard Dixon's on own words which also are generously used in the book.

Though I'm writng about him as an artist, Maynard Dixon made a good accounting of himself as a poet too. Insightful, poignant words that are a far cry from the packaged language one often hears today. We need good poets to remind of deeper things, sublime things, good things. Like his painting, Maynard Dixon's poetry is also immortal.

I'd urge all to get a hold of this august book about and august man who can still teach us fundamentals in what is means to be American, an individual, a man. His constitution was written with brushes, pens, pencils, and other art means, but it still speaks freely, clearly, and with power to anyone who is willing to listen.

Take me at my word , but buy the book anyway.

Desert Fire is a fun book that's both a spy story and an adventure novel. It reads like early Ludlom, with great pacing and a sense of humor. I highly recommend it!

The author of Desert Fire was a real CIA guy... and it shows in Desert Fire. The essential background information is exactly where it needs to be with no nonesense, bogus threads, or manufactured dead ends.

The scenario is realistic with a minimum of literary fluff. A no-nonesense piece of fiction that comes from all points of the globe but wastes no time keying into the essentials of the story.

I'm not going to spoil the story... Just know that the setting includes the US, Communist Russian KGB, a Middle Eastern King, and a scenario that is just a little too realistic for comfort. Desert Fire has the perfect amount of intrigue, passion, realistic possibilities, and literary foil to keep you reading til you've hit the back cover.

A great first book... Hope this author writes more like it.

I have used this book every year as a third grade teacher. It is wonderful as a read aloud for science to illustrate how animals and plants adapt to their environment and rely on other plants and animals for survival. This is one of the best books I have ever read to my class because it is not dull science jargon but presented as the story of the life of the cactus. Don't miss this one for teaching and learning about life science in the desert.

Our third grade loved your book. It gave us a lot of information about the desert. The illustrations were excellent. We especilly liked the use of author techniques such as diagrams, onomatopeias, catchy title and colorful illustrations. We would love to contact Barbara Bash.

HELLO, I AM 24 AND I WILL START TEACHING ON JANUARY. I WILL USE THIS BOOK WHEN TALKING ABOUT ANIMALS AND NATURE. IT IS A USEFUL BOOK FOR GRADES 4TH AND UP BECAUSE OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS AND THE MESSAGE IN POETIC FORM. A MUST READ BOOK! I RECOMEND IT HIGHLY. I AM USING IT NOW FOR MY CHILDREN'S LITERATURE CLASS.

This children's book describes the animal- and plant-life found in the desert in the southwest U.S., including the Papago Indians. Children learn more about what it is like to live in such an environment. The book was illustrated by Peter Parnall and was a 1976 Caldecott Honor book (i.e., a runner-up to the Medal winner) for best illustrations in a book for children.