Dig, Wait, Listen: A Desert Toad's Tale - Hardcover

Sayre, April Pulley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688166148 ISBN 13: 9780688166144

Publisher: Greenwillow Books, 2001

Synopsis

The desert Southwest
is full of sounds.

Skitter, skitter, scratch.
A scorpion is crawling.
Pop, pop, pop.
kangaroo rat is hopping.
Tsk, tsk, tsk.
A rattlesnake is
shaking its tail.

But the spadefoot toad
is quiet in her
underground burrow,
listening for one sound
in particular...
What is that sound?
And what will the
spadefoot toad do
when she hears it?

About this title

About the Author

April Pulley Sayre is the award-winning creator of numerous books for children, including the acclaimed Raindrops Roll, Best in Snow, and Full of Fall. She has traveled many places to investigate, observe, and photograph animals, plants, weather, and the world. The stunning photographs in Thank You, Earth illuminate basic concepts of science, language arts, math, and conservation for young earthlings. April Pulley Sayre lives in South Bend, Indiana. You can visit her at www.aprilsayre.com.

Barbara Bash is pictured here with the spadefoot toad that lived in her studio while she worked on this book. The artist has written and illustrated a number of award-winning books on natural topics, including Desert Giant: The World of the Saguaro Cactus. She lives with her husband and son in the Hudson Valley of New York.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Ages 4-7. Several inches below the surface of the desert sand, a spadefoot toad waits and listens for rain. She hears the sounds of animals overhead: a scorpion, a kangaroo rat, a herd of peccaries, a woodpecker, and a rattlesnake. Finally, rains falls. She digs her way to the surface, where she mates. From the eggs she laid in a puddle of rainwater, tadpoles hatch and grow into toads. These tiny toads dig under the sand and wait, perhaps for months, for rain. Sayre, the author of If You Should Hear the Honey Guide (1995) and Turtle, Turtle, Watch Out! (2000), once again writes about the natural world in a way that is clear, precise, and poetic. The text, which is akin to that of any good fiction picture book in its brevity, attention to sensory details, and read-aloud potential, also conveys the life cycle of a single species in a cogent and memorable way. The book ends with two appended pages that include a discussion of the spadefoot toad and a little information about each of the other animals that appeared in the book. Created with pencil, pen and ink, and watercolor, Bash's pictures illustrate the desert scenes with pleasingly varied colors, perspectives, and layouts. Preschool and primary-grade children will find this well-crafted book a wholly satisfying introduction to the spadefoot toad in particular and desert animals and the idea of life cycles in general. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Greenwillow Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0688166148
• ISBN 13: 9780688166144
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32
• Illustrator: Bash Barbara