Brittany+Baird+Southwest+Living+Desert

Brittany Baird Bibliography: The Southwest Living Desert Arizona State University

**__Teacher resources: Non-Fiction __**  This book shows the sandy desert with focus on the tracks left by animals and insects that are native to the area. The photographs are sepia taken and some capture the animals and insects leaving the tracks. The text in the book describes the animal that left the track in the sand. The desert location in which these photographs were taken were in the Southwest.  The related curriculum featured in this book is science/ geography. This book portrays many different animals whom are only found in the southwest desert. Some of the animals photographed are; snakes, turtles, and lizards. It would also be useful to use this book on tracking. The real live photography captures the beauty of the desert in addition to its animals that reside in it. The content within this book is narrowed to the indigenous tribal lands of Arizona and the people whom reside in it. Topics include; native warriors, Hopi and Navajo code talkers, desert video, weaving, blanket and basket weaving, pottery, katsina dolls, and art. This book provides details of the way Native Americans live in the Arizona desert and provides photographs of some of the desert landscape. The text provides great insight into some of the cultures and traditions of the people of the desert.  This book captures social studies and the people whom live in the southwest desert. The book is rich with detail onto the Native American tribes who in the desert and how they were able to sustain life despite the harsh living conditions on the desert. Geography is also relevant due to the real photographs used within the book. This book highlights the Southwest desert during the rare occasion of rain. The book follows a young girl and her experience during the rain, there is also illustrations of what the desert looks like in the rain as well as how the desert animals respond to it as well. There is gratitude for the rain for it is the ‘bringer of life’.  This book holds materials for both science and social studies. The story shows how natives to the southwest desert as well as wildlife take advantage of the rain. This story would be good to compare and contrast the differences in culture/ geography when it rains. Incorporating why it rains into the lesson would make a nice tie into why it rains so little in the southwest. This book follows a saguaro cactus from seed to death. The book explains how a saguaro comes to form as well as a time line of its life. The cactus is home to many animals throughout its long life. The book shares how it stores its water to survive as well as what happens to it when it dies. Some of the desert life featured is; foxes, snakes, jackrabbits, quail, rats, and coyote.  The curriculum that ties into this book is geography and science. This book tells us the lifecycle of a cactus as well as how some desert animals take shelter within it and use it for food. This book provides a timeline of the saguaro cactus; fifty years it sprouts its first buds and it ten feet tall, at sixty years the cactus is eighteen feet tall, and two hundred year it falls to the earth. **__Teacher resources: Fiction __** This book follows a young girl as she travels throughout the Southwest desert lands on a trip. It features many different states and is written in letter form from Kate (the main character) to her parents and other family members. The book highlights different destinations in the deserts to visit as well as compares and contrasts the states geography. The desert areas covered are; Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. Kate eventually ends up back home in New Jersey happy for all of the experiences.  The main curriculum evident in this story is geography. This story covers the greater part of the southwest. It provides maps and also compares and contrasts the southwest desert to New York. This story also covers a large amount of destinations the southwest is known for such as, the four corners, the old west, and the Grand Canyon. This book is also written in letter form and could be a good introduction to writing letters. This book counts different desert items starting with one green mesquite tree. The books illustrations feature both the item and quantity portrayed in the text of the story. The book counts all the way up to twenty long-nosed bats. The items counted are all plants and animals native to the Southwest desert. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;"> The curriculum evident in this story is mainly math. The story shows a one to one ratio of counting one through twenty. This is a great book for counting because it features the idea that you can anything. Another unit to include is science, what living things (plants and animals) reside in the desert. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">In this story the fable of the three little pigs is remade, instead of three little pigs the three main characters are javelins and instead of a wolf the villain is a coyote. This remake has the same premise of the original story only it is retold in the southwest desert featuring desert animals and desert materials to build their houses. At the end of the story it is explained that being defeated by the three javelinas is why the coyote howls at the moon. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;"> This story could be incorporated into writing as well as social studies. The class can compare and contrast how different fables can be from one another depending on the geography and setting of the story. Science can also be used to identify some animals of the southwest region. This book was made in both Spanish and English, one can use this book to help English language learners adapt to English. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">This story is a retelling of the fable ‘The Tortoise and the Hair’. In this fun retelling the tortoise is an old lady whom is very slow at everything, the jackrabbit is young, speedy, and always in a rush. The jackrabbit makes fun of how slow the tortoise is and she challenges him to a race. The jackrabbit feels so sure of himself winning he stops to take a nap and that buys enough time for the tortoise to win. This story features many illustrations of desert and animals who inhabit it. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;"> This story would be interesting to use as comparing and contrasting fables. Comparing this book to the fable, tortoise and the hair and sowing how perspectives can change in different settings. Writing could include making a class book based off of another fable such as the ginger bread man or the three little pigs. This book also features a variety of animals native to the southwest, this could incorporate science and social studies. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">In this fictional tale following a kangaroo rat named Cody. Cody meets a stranger (who is a jackalope) who tells him of the creature the jackalope. Code is curious and sets off to discover one for himself. As he meets some of the animals of the desert he hears different rumors of what a jackalope is. In the end Cody gives up and goes home unknowingly of the fact that he had already met one. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;"> The desert landscape and animals introduced in the book can be incorporated into science and geography. Insects, arachnids, and mammals native to the southwest desert are all featured in this book. Perspective of language is also seen in this book, the cultural study on how language differs from region to region, from northeast to southwest, could fit into social studies cultural differences. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">This book gives the reader a large amount of information on what a javelina is, where it lives, as well as other attributes such as smell and eye sight. The book makes it clear to the reader that the javelina is not part of the pig family but rather a collared peccary who lives in the Sonoran Desert. The text is higher reading level but the pictures will keep younger students interested. Along with javelina other desert animals are featured visually but not by name. This book also was winner to the Judy Goddard Award. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;"> This book would be beneficial to incorporate into science and the study of animals native to the Sonoran Desert. Due to the rich details given on the javelina the reader could get so much from what a javelina eats, what its predators are, and how it lives in the wild. This book could also incorporate social studies as an introduction to the Spaniards in the south due to a brief explanation in the book on how they viewed the javelinas and how the Spanish compared the javelinas teeth to a javelin.
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">Baylor, Byrd. 1976. __We Walk in Sandy Places.__ Charles Scribner’s Sons/ New York. 40 pages. Tempe Public Library. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">Benning, Annica. 2012. __Arizona: Nations and Art.__ First printing. 49 pages. Tempe Public Library. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">Buchanan, Ken and Debby. 1994. __It Rained in the Desert Today.__ Northland Publishing. 28 pages. Tempe Public Library. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">Guiberson, Brenda Z. 1991. __Cactus Hotel.__ Henry Holt and Company/ New York. 29 pages. Tempe Public Library. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">Brisson, Pat. 1990. __Kate Heads West.__ Bradbury Press/ New York. 30 pages. Tempe Public Library. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">Jernigan, Wesley E. 1988. __One Green Mesquite Tree.__ Harbinger House, Inc./ Tucson. 20 pages. Tempe Public Library. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">Lowell, Susan. 1996. __The Three Javelinas.__ Northland Publishing. 26 pages. Tempe Public Library. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">Lowell, Susan. 1996. __The Tortoise and the Jackrabbit.__ Northland Publishing. 27 pages. Tempe Public Library. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">Lund, Jullian. 2004. __Have You Ever Seen a Jackalope?__ The RGU Group. 27 pages. Tempe Public Library. **
 * <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16px;">Storad, Conrad J. 1999. __Don’t Call Me a Pig!__ The RGU Group. 28 pages. Tempe Public Library. **