Author/Illustrator Karen Patkau
Tundra Books 2014
Ages 7+
Although deserts are harsh, dry places, they abound with fascinating plants and wildlife. Author and illustrator Karen Patkau takes us on an amazing journey through one of the earth’s most important ecosystems. Discover the plants and animals that have adapted to a deserts extreme conditions – from grasses, cacti, shrubs, and trees to Gila monsters, roadrunners, scorpions and kangaroo rats – and how they interact with their desert environment. Find out about the vital roles a desert plays in providing food and shelter for its residents and influencing global air movements.
LOOK INSIDE
AWARDS & HONOURS
• Green Book Festival 2016 First Runner-Up
• Silver Falchion Readers Choice Award Nominee 2015
• Resource Links 2014 Year’s Best List
REVIEWS
• “These titles recommended here look at … ecosystems … with a keen respect and awareness for the world we live in. … Much of the world’s food is grown on grassland, and the importance of protecting this ecosystem is highlighted in Karen Patkau’s Who Needs a Prairie? (Tundra, 2014; Gr 1-3). The book jacket is a call-to-action and inside, the message is relayed in flowing, lyrical text and artistically painted landscapes. Author/illustrator Patkau renders the temperate prairie seasons accurately, as well as emotionally, such as deer foraging in a blizzard, creatures fleeing a grass fire, and a meadowlark singing after a rain. … Other ecosystems in the series include: Who Needs a Desert?, Who Needs an Iceberg?, Who Needs a Jungle?, Who Needs a Reef?, and Who Needs a Swamp? — all great to read-aloud choices for content vocabulary and text-to-picture connections.” – School Library Journal’s Curriculum Connections
• “There is not much interesting in a desert, is there? It’s just a dry expanse of sand and cactus, right? Not so, this book will explain to delighted elementary school-aged children. The desert is really a rich eco-system filled with a surprisingly wide variety of plants and animals. Even though the environment is quite harsh, plants and animals have adapted to this arid place and survive quite nicely there. Author/illustrator Karen Patkau uses age-appropriate text in small enough chunks to keep her young readers from being overwhelmed. The rest of each spread in the book is a beautiful, detailed painting showing the flora and fauna of a particular kind of desert environment. The life cycle, down to bacteria, is one of the several fascinating spreads, while others include how deserts are formed, desert rain, and desert life. … this is a lovely book children will find very engaging.” – San Fransisco Book Review
• “ … Karen Patkau entices young readers with her narrative of desert life, and then adds real facts to help them learn about this unique ecosystem. … A teacher could use these series of books to introduce ecosystems and habitats to their students and to be a jumping off point for a research project.” – LibraryThing Early Reviewers
• “Usually when books involve the ecosystem, nature or non-fiction animals they can be hard to read for younger audiences since so many are either scientifically dry or badly organized. This beautiful book was well-organized, kept simple and given beautiful illustrations thus it will fascinate children of every age while also teaching them.” – LibraryThing Early Reviewers
• “Another great ecosystem introduction. This can be a difficult ecosystem to understand. The introduction pulls young eyes into the biodiversity of the desert with interesting plants and animals then goes on to explain why the desert is the way it is with weather patterns. … There are lots of good curriculum tie-ins with food chains, life cycles, human impact and vocabulary words.” – LibraryThing Early Reviewers
• “Nonfiction picture books are not nearly as common as they once were, but author and illustrator Karen Patkau proves the genre is not dead. Her beautiful illustrations and maps present information in an easy to understand format for young readers. … Each book includes simple text for beginning nonfiction readers supported by detailed illustrations of the plant and animal life in each ecosystem. … All of the books in this series contain valuable information supported with illustrations that help young readers understand the content. The message in each is clear. We need to care about these different ecosystems.” – Highly Recommended – Canadian Materials
• “… Patkau offers a series of vibrant scenes … striking illustrations. The text both interprets the visual content … and offers paragraphs of diverse facts.” – Booklist
• “Patkau explains the importance of each ecosystem with clear and concise details … Each volume explains what makes a particular ecosystem unique … Written at a Grade 2 to 5 level, the books are 32 pages long and the text is limited to one-quarter of the page, which is an attractive feature for reluctant readers. This series should prove to be a useful resource to introduce young students to the world’s ecosystems and their importance to our survival.” – CANADIAN CHILDREN’S BOOK NEWS “The Classroom Bookshelf”
• “… Karen Patkau … has created six Ecosystem Series books exploring the value of spaces that we North Americans once considered “wasted” — the prairies and swamps — and also looks at why humans, as much as animals, need reefs, icebergs, jungles and desert. The books are recommended for young people, ages seven to 10, but the wisdom behind the text is multi-generational.” – Prairie Messenger
